The Proper Usage of a Love Spell
by Metamorph0sis
Summary: Young witch Amber Evans refuses to use her incredible powers, believing that she destroys everything she touches. When a pushy, moody, obnoxious young man shows up claiming to be her guardian angel, she wastes no time telling him to get lost. Chris soon discovers his job isn't as easy as he thought. He needs to figure out a way to make her trust him without getting blown up first.
1. Chapter 1

~~O~~

_Chris was flipping through the worn pages of the Book of Shadows when he felt the familiar tingling fissure in the air that indicated someone orbing in. Chris looked up and his face flickered with irritation before smoothing out into neutrality. "Oh. Hey, Leo." _

"_Chris." Leo studied him briefly. "What are you doing?" _

"_Nothing. Just looking for more demons for the sisters to vanquish. What do you want?" Chris felt the deep-set resentment collected from years of disappointment creep up on him. He pushed it away, and gritted his teeth, resigning himself to a conversation with the father he never got to know.  
Leo was looking closely at him. Chris quickly recovered the poker face he'd spent years perfecting. Apparently discouraged by Chris' lack of expression, Leo stopped scrutinizing him and said, "Chris, I need to talk to you." _

_Chris' eyes narrowed suspiciously. "About what? If this is some sort of father/son talk, I have better things to do." _

_Leo shook his head. "I've been talking with the other Elders and we've got an assignment for you."_

_Chris covered his surprise with a raised eyebrow. Abruptly, he responded, "I don't want any new assignments; I'm busy enough as it is protecting Wyatt." _

_Leo folded his arms. "Your mother and I can protect Wyatt. We're his parents, it's our job. And we have a job that's far more important right now._

_Chris had the childish impulse to put his fingers in his ears and start humming so he wouldn't have to hear it. Instead, he took the more age-appropriate route and looked Leo straight in the eyes. "I don't want whatever job the Elders feel like shoving onto me. Not my responsibility, not my problem."_

_Undeterred, Leo tried again. "Her name's Amber." _

"_I said no. I don't want another charge. I came here for Wyatt, that's it." Chris started to walk away. If he orbed, Leo would follow. Not that walking away was going to make a difference if Leo felt like being stubborn._

"_Chris!" Leo gripped his shoulder and forced Chris to look at him. "Listen to me. She's in trouble. You're the only one left to help her. You have to do this. Please." The expression on his face made Chris pause. But only for a moment._

"_I don't need another reason to be here."_

_He orbed out and this time Leo didn't follow. _

He'd thought that was the end of it. Until now.

He was lounging on the couch in his room at P3, staring at the ceiling. It was so ironic. Back home, he probably would have given his right arm for the responsibility he was offered now. Maybe he was exaggerating a little. But he'd wanted nothing more than to prove that he was better than they thought he was. That he wasn't the useless one in the family. The irony was that when he was finally handed the opportunity, he couldn't accept it.

The gentle buzzing in his head that would never cease had gone nearly silent for awhile. Now it increased to a keening pitch that shrieked through his brain. He instinctively covered his ears, even though he knew that it would have no effect on the sound reverberating through his brain, and he orbed.


	2. Chapter 2

_**This is pretty much my baby, so take good care of it. Love it like it were your own… which means reviewing (hint, hint, elbow)**_

_**I should warn you now, Amber swears like a sailor sometimes so if that kind of thing bothers you, as much as I hate to say it, you should probably read a different fanfic.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed or Chris Halliwell (no matter how much I wish I did)**_

_**I do, however, own Amber Evans, my favorite saucy redhead- and I have no plans of giving her up any time soon. At least I own something.**_

_** ~~O~~**_

Cold metal.

Blood dripping.

Amber drifted in and out of consciousness. She could no longer feel the pain from the lacerations that slashed crimson stripes across her skin.

The voice barely registered in her brain through the fog. "Why won't you scream for us?"

The silky faux-sweet tone couldn't disguise the malevolence underneath. "Have you had enough?" As she spoke, the female slid one long claw into one of the ribbons of blood and ran it deep inside the gash. The lethal tip scraped along the bone. It was like touching a live electrical wire. Amber's eyes flew open and a scream ripped involuntarily from her throat, the sound bloodcurdling even to her own ears.

"That's more like it." The demoness purred. Sick, twisted bitch.

Amber had brief moment of lucidity where she regretted her earlier refusal to exploit her only defense mechanism. She didn't have the strength and focus required now to use her powers. _Shit, mother-fucking son of a…_ the stream of expletives ended when she heard a keening scream that was rapidly cut off. Her eyes were closed, but she could hear the world exploding into pandemonium around her. Screams and thuds echoed in her ears. She tried to move, but her body refused to budge.

Silence.

A cracking sound. Her arms fell to her sides, followed by her body hitting the ground, and she flinched at the pain that shot down her arms from the tendons in her shoulders. She could feel someone leaning over her, but she couldn't open her eyes and she couldn't move. She heard a low male voice swear, and then she was lifted up off the ground.

Small mercies granted, that was when she passed out.

~~O~~

It grated on every nerve that Chris had to ask Leo for help.

He'd tried to heal her by himself. But there was nothing. He still couldn't find the trigger. He had laid the unconscious girl on the couch, although Piper wouldn't be thrilled at the blood on the recently-repaired sofa. He glanced quickly at the girl to see if she was breathing. "Leo!"

He was in luck. Sort of. Leo came running into the room from the kitchen… followed by Piper and Phoebe. Leo grasped the situation immediately and knelt beside the couch. He held his hands out over the comatose girl- Amber, he remembered- and a golden glow began to emanate from his hands.

The front door swung open, and Paige called out, "Hey, anyone... home….?" She finished awkwardly, seeing everyone gathered around the couch. "Who's she?"

"My charge." Chris answered automatically. He regretted it almost immediately. In saying that, he'd inadvertently and officially accepted his status as her whitelighter. Why was it taking so long to heal her?

"What's taking so long?" He snapped at Leo. "Why isn't she healing?"

Leo wasn't even remotely perturbed by the tone in Chris' voice. "The wounds are deep."

"Stop pacing, you're driving me nuts." Piper complained. Chris shot her an irritated look before sitting on the couch armrest.

"She should be waking up any minute." Leo said with a furrowed brow, pulling his hands back. He got to his feet. "If you need anything, you know where to find me."

~~O~~

Amber was slowly regaining consciousness. The first thing she processed was the texture of the fabric under her skin. Her finger twitched. She carefully flexed her toes and then her fingers, and came to the second, astonishing, realization. She wasn't in pain. The third realization was that she was surrounded by people. And she suddenly felt such an onslaught of emotions that she felt a need to separate and categorize them. Anxiety was the strongest, but oddly there was a counter layer of absurd calm under it. Curiosity was also strong, compelling her to open her eyes. The anxiety shifted instantly into relief. She slowly pushed herself into a sitting position and looked around warily at the people in the room.  
"Who are you?" Exhaustion was threatening to consume her, and she was barely able to concentrate.

"Who, me?"

She realized belatedly that she'd paused and been staring at someone when he pointed at himself as he asked that question.

"All of…" She glanced back, and only barely saw a brunette tugging a redhead and another brunette into the other room. "You." She finished, returning her attention back to the one who'd spoken to her.

He shifted so that he was sitting on the couch cushion properly instead of on the armrest.

"I'm Chris. I'm… your new whitelighter." He sounded resigned and kind of irritated. She felt a spark of annoyance in return. He didn't have to sound so _happy_ about it, she thought sarcastically.

"Whitelighter." She echoed. What was a whitelighter? She looked to Chris, hoping he'd explain without her needing to look like a total idiot. There was a moment of silence. Then Amber realized that she'd completely zoned out and in one of those moments of vivid clarity, she noted that the corner of his mouth was starting to twitch in amusement. He looked like he was fighting it. Frustrated and now embarrassed, she finally asked the question. "What's a whitelighter?"

He delivered the standard definition. "A whitelighter is a protector of a witches and future whitelighters." He cracked a smile. "I'm your guardian angel."

"That's what Ethan said." She murmured, lost in a thought momentarily. "My guardian angel."

Chris frowned. "Who's Ethan?"

"My first… _whitelighter_." She used the unfamiliar word this time. The word clearly brought her pain. He thought he caught the sparkle of a tear in her eye before she turned her face away. When she looked at him next, her eyes were clear and dry. "Why am I here?"

Chris leaned forward, suddenly deadly serious. "Do you know anything about the demons that had you?"

Amber was taken aback by the utter intensity of his expression and it took a moment for her to call up the answer. "No. I have no idea who they were."

"Are you sure? Was there anything special about them that stood out?"

Amber frowned and bit her lip. "No. Wait. They were working for someone; they talked about him. But they never said his name."

Chris processed this vague information. He nodded slowly, already searching his brain for possibilities. "Will you be okay if I leave you in here by yourself for a few minutes?"

She nodded.

When he was gone from the room, she lifted her hands to observe them. No marks. Not even scars. She put her hands down and leaned her head against the back of the couch and let her eyes drift closed.

~~O~~

Chris found Piper, Paige, and Leo up in the attic. "She doesn't know who the demons were, or who they're working for, but it's obviously an upper level demon."

A look of mild surprise crossed Leo's face. "She talked to you? Did you tell her you were her whitelighter?"  
"Yeah." Chris didn't get what Leo was so surprised about. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Ah…" Leo ran his fingers through his hair. "I should probably let her tell you that."  
"Just tell me." Chris insisted.

A frown creased Leo's face. "I can't tell you." He said honestly. "That's her personal story. She'll tell you when she's ready."

Chris opened his mouth to say something rude, but instead his mouth quirked into a small smirk. "Really, who told _you_ her story? Her or the Elders?"

Leo inwardly groaned. "That's not the point." He deterred. "It's important for you to talk with Amber about it and have her tell you herself."

"That could take way too long. I need to know now." Chris pointed out.

"Fine." Leo heaved a sigh. "I'll tell you what I know. But you'll have to find out the rest from her."

He paused, regretting the words before he spoke them. "Her first whitelighter died. The rumor going around is that she killed him, but no one knows for sure what happened except for Amber."

Chris paused completely. He may have even stopped breathing. Before the storm could break loose upon him, Leo said, "According to the other Elders, she's refused to take a whitelighter since."

Chris exploded. "And you didn't think this was important enough to tell me? If she killed her first whitelighter, how do you know the same thing isn't going to happen to me?"

"Obviously, the Elders don't think she's a threat." Piper spoke up out of the blue. She'd been listening carefully to the entire exchange. "If they did, they would have bound her powers. Or at least done something. You don't know it wasn't an accident." she said reasonably.

"Exactly," said Leo. "We don't know what happened. The only person alive to tell us is Amber."

"Chris, you should give her a chance." Paige piped up. "I bet this is a misunderstanding and it's probably a sensitive subject for her. She won't even take a whitelighter now, right? Maybe you can help her."

"If she doesn't want a whitelighter in the first place, what makes you think she'll let me help?" Chris pointed out, folding his arms. Paige shrugged. "I dunno. You're not exactly the average whitelighter. Just give it a shot."

"Fine, but if I die, I'm blaming you guys." Chris relented, significantly calmer.

He remembered seeing the tears in Amber's eyes when the subject had turned to the whitelighter.

"I'd better check on her."

She was sleeping on the couch when he got back to the living room. He hesitated, not wanting to wake her up. Was there any reason he had to? He didn't think anyone would mind if she slept on the couch.

Piper poked her head in, undoubtedly curious about the lack of noise of any sort.

Chris said quietly, "She's sleeping."

Piper smiled. "I can see that. She must have gotten bored while you were upstairs interrogating your father."

"I wasn't interrogating—" Chris began, but the look on Piper's face told him there was no way he'd convince her otherwise. Chris returned to the matter at hand. "What should I do with her?"

Amused, Piper pointed out, "She's your charge. You make the decision."

Chris was decidedly less amused. "I mean, can she sleep on the couch?"

"I don't see why not."

~~O~~

Amber woke to sounds in the kitchen. She didn't know what time it was. For that matter, she wasn't sure where she was. She slowly sat up into a cross-legged position and looked around. The memories from the night before rushed back to mind. She had a pressing problem. A whitelighter. "I've been tricked somehow." She muttered. Stupid Elders. Damn whitelighters. She had been so tired last night that when that guy told her that he was her new whitelighter. She got up and cautiously ventured into the kitchen, unsure of what to expect.

She relaxed when she saw the woman at the stove, flipping pancakes. The woman turned around. "I see you're awake. Amber, right?"

"Yeah." Amber responded. "You're... Piper, right?"

Piper went back to flipping pancakes, but not before sliding a curious glance at Amber. "Psychic?"

"Sometimes." Amber responded. She knew perfectly well how annoyingly cryptic her answer was but wasn't in any sort of mood to elaborate. Piper's scarred eyebrow arched as she scooped a couple of pancakes onto a plate, and handed it to Amber. "There's butter in the fridge and the syrup's on the table."

Amber wondered if she prepared breakfast like this all the time or if it was for her benefit. Either way… she moved to the fridge to get out the butter. "Pancakes? Do you make them every day, or was I just lucky?" She spread butter on the hot pancakes, scraping the knife to get the excess off. She didn't see Piper smile.

"I like cooking. I used to make breakfast all the time, but everyone was always too busy to eat in the morning, so I stopped." Piper admitted. "But since you were here, I figured you might be hungry."

Amber would've responded, but her mouth was full. She chewed and swallowed appreciatively. "Thanks." She said, eyeballing Piper cautiously.

"Any time." Piper put the dishes she'd used to make breakfast into the sink. "So, what are you going to be doing today?"

"Going home." Amber said with absolutely no hesitation. "As soon as I tell, what was his name- Chris- that I don't need or want a whitelighter, I'll be on my merry way. Where is Chris anyway?"

Piper counted down in her head. She wasn't disappointed. Chris appeared in a sparkle of orbs. "Was someone looking for me?" He looked at Amber and Piper.

"Morning." Piper greeted, looking up at him with her almost ever-present sparkle of good humor. "As a matter of fact, someone was." She turned her head to look at Amber again.

"Oh, right." Chris mentally kicked himself. "Hey, Amber." He gifted her with a smile of greeting.

_Whoa._ Gazing up at him, she briefly entertained the thought of having a whitelighter. _No, you know better. _But… he was a _whitelighter?_ She wasn't sure how she could have been so tired she didn't notice how gorgeous he was. His longish brown hair was tousled like he'd been in the process of getting ready and hadn't done more than run a comb through it a couple times. Her eyes caught his and held them. Smoldering deep green. Cursing her weakness for green eyes, she took in a breath and realized she'd been staring. Had he asked her a question? Oops. Apparently not expecting a reply anymore, he continued, "I haven't found whoever's after you yet, but I'm going to keep working on it, okay?

Amber shook her head as she stood up. "No. Obviously word hasn't gotten around to the Elders yet. I am _not _having another whitelighter. I'm sorry for wasting your time." She tried to leave.

"Whoa. Where do you think you're going?" He grabbed her arm. Amber looked down at his hand accusingly. He let go with a muttered apology.

"Home." She responded, folding her arms and looking him straight in the eyes. "I am going to go home, feed my cat, and go back to trying to live some semblance of a normal life."

"You're giving up your magic?" Chris was shocked. What could possibly have happened to make her want to give up her magic completely? He never had understood people like that, even though that's how his mother had always been. What was the point of magic, if you didn't use it?

"I have my reasons." She said grimly.

"Look, the Elders keep sending you whitelighters for a reason. Obviously you're not meant to stop using magic." Chris pointed out. He realized he'd said something wrong when anger flashed in her eyes. "No one makes my decisions for me. If I don't want to use magic, I won't."

Chris was starting to get frustrated. How was he supposed to do his job if she was going to be so difficult? "Those demons are going to come after you again."

"I'll be expecting them this time."

"And how exactly do you plan to stop them without magic?" Chris demanded.

"I didn't say I wasn't going to use magic. I just said I didn't want anything to do with you." She reminded him.

_Now _he was angry. Not to mention offended. "Yeah? Maybe you didn't want a whitelighter, but I didn't want a charge!" He informed her.

Leo strode into the kitchen to stand next to Chris. "Is there a problem?" He inquired, sending Chris a questioning look.

"Leo!" Amber burst out. "What are you doing here? Are the cosmos just ganging up on me today?" She queried of the ceiling.

"Wait, you know each other?" Piper's curiosity was peaked.

"Know each other? The guy badgered me for a week, and wouldn't leave me alone for months!" Amber exclaimed.

"I was her whitelighter for awhile." Leo admitted sheepishly. "Until they assigned someone else."

"Yeah, me." Chris affirmed.

"Amber, with your powers, you do need a whitelighter. Chris is your last chance. You should take advantage of this."

It was the last straw. "I don't _need_ a whitelighter! I have had _every_ goddamn whitelighter up there—wherever it is you're from-come down and try to fix me! I've told every single one of them and their brother that I won't take another whitelighter. I don't _want_ another whitelighter and that's—"

"_Amber_." Chris interrupted her rant. This was a mistake. "WHAT!" She snapped, swinging around to face him and throwing up a hand in a furious gesture of exasperation.

One of the cabinets exploded, sending a cascade of shattered glass crashing to the floor. Every single one of them froze. And Piper wasn't to blame.

Chris was standing stock still, staring wide eyed at her. "What…was that?" He finally said.

Amber could feel her face twist into a picture of absolute horror. She closed her eyes for a moment and thought, _Thank you for strengthening my resolution. For reminding me that I made the right choice to start with. _And then she did the only thing that made sense to her. She ran. Out of the room, out of the house, by the time her feet hit the front walk, tears were already splashing off her nose. She stopped in her tracks when orbs shimmered in the air and Chris was suddenly standing in front of her. Irritably, she muttered "Oh. I forgot you guys could do that."

"What were you thinking?" Chris demanded, staring her down. "You just ran out into the street when you don't even know where you are!"

She blinked up at him. He was right. She didn't have a clue where she was.

"Where did you think you were going?" He continued.

"I don't know." She mumbled, turning her face away. "Out. Away." Truth was, there was nothing she hated more than crying in front of people and since the tears were still insistently making wet tracks down her cheeks, getting out of there seemed like the thing to do.

~~O~~

He'd never had a real charge before. He wasn't sure what the protocol of dealing with an upset charge was and he was fairly certain that there wasn't a section in the handbook at all on what to say to a charge who was upset because she'd almost blown you up. He watched her swipe at her tears with an impatient hand and glare at the offending wetness. Maybe he did know how she felt, at least a little. Screw the book. He'd always made his own rules before, why not now? He took a deep breath. "Running away won't help you. It never helps." And he looked her straight in the eyes, so she would understand. The suspicion in her eyes shifted into wary comprehension. He had the strangest feeling in that moment, that maybe; just maybe, he could do this after all. "Why don't we take a walk?" He offered.


	3. Chapter 3

**I hope you enjoy the chapter- I think it gets a bit slow in some parts but it's all important in the long run, so I left it in.**

**Disclaimer: I have to admit that I do not own anything related to Charmed, but I do own Amber Evans.**

**Let me know what you think **

_**Chapter Two**_

"I soak up powers like a sponge. I copy them, I don't take them. But all you have to do is be within the same vicinity, and I can use your powers."

They'd been walking for awhile, and Amber had relaxed enough to start telling him things. He glanced at her and thought, _There's gotta be a catch here._ It wasn't hard to figure out what the issue was.

"You don't know how to use them, do you?" His tone was wry.

"Right." Her tone matched his.

Chris rolled his eyes up to the sky. "Of course. So you need training."

Amber said sharply, "No! I mean, just because I'm… you tricked me. I haven't changed my mind."

"I don't have cooties."

Amber gaped at him. Did he really say that? "I know that. It's nothing against you. I just don't want a whitelighter."

"I'm seriously insulted here. You think I can't handle anything you throw at me?" He raised an eyebrow at her. There had to be some form of psychology that would work on her, since speaking with her normally wasn't going to work at all.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wound your male ego?" She retorted. "I told you it had nothing to do with you."

"But it has to do with that whitelighter you mentioned yesterday." He was positive of that much.

"I don't want to talk about it." She warned sharply.

"That's fine. You don't have to talk about it yet. But I have an idea."

Involving more psychology, of course.

Amber was looking in the other direction, but he knew she was listening.

"A trial. Six weeks as your whitelighter."

"What?"

"Six. Weeks." He enunciated. "As your whitelighter."

She was silent, thinking about it. She sucked her cheeks in, hollowing them out. "I don't know. Fine. We'll try. I hope you know what you're getting into."

His lips lifted into a half-smile. "I'll be fine." He assured her confidently. He didn't let himself consider the consequences of him being wrong.

~~O~~

"You're being ridiculous!"

"I am not!"

Another argument had erupted between the two as soon as Chris had told Amber that she had to stay at the Manor until they found the demon that was after her. Naturally, they were ignoring the fact that this argument was taking place in front of everyone in the household.

"I don't believe this." Chris was about to throw up his hands in frustration. "_Demons_ kidnap you and torture you, and you're going home."

"What would you have me do? Hide out here and quiver in fear?" She pitched her voice higher than normal. "Ooh, the big bad demons are going to hurt me." Her voice lowered to its normal pitch. "I. Am. So. Scared." She punctuated each and every word with a step towards him until she was staring him defiantly in the face.

Amber held her ground as she stared at him, waiting for a response. The corner of his mouth twitched. Very slowly, his eyes traveled from her face… down … and then he dragged them back up to her face. Her mouth almost fell open. Did he just? Did that just _happen_?

As if he hadn't just paused and no pause had taken place, Chris responded, "You should be."

Should be what? Oh, yeah. Snapping her mouth closed (it _had_ fallen open). Quickly recovering her composure, she shot back, "Why? I can take care of myself."

He snorted at that. "Yeah, cause you were taking such great care of yourself back there when you were chained to a wall."

"I didn't need your help!"

"Oh, yeah? If you don't need me then why are you here?"

"Because you won't let me leave!"

"No, because I had to orb in and save your ass. By the way, you're welcome."

"Thanks!" She fumed. "I'll be leaving now, if you don't mind."

"Absolutely. Let's go." He said, completely agreeably.

"Huh?" Amber was a little slow on the uptake.

"Let's go." He repeated. "We do have to get your stuff. Well, some of it." He qualified.

Amber heaved a huge sigh. She had the feeling she was not going to win this one. And she was getting a huge headache. Maybe she should let him win. Again.

"Fine." She grumbled. "But I'm letting you win. So it doesn't count."

Chris actually smirked at that. She didn't realize—and he wasn't about to tell her—that the point was exactly that. He won the argument by letting her think that she was winning. Twisted logic? Obviously. He was dealing with a female, and nothing was ever simple with them. You learn a thing or two growing up in a primarily female household. Besides with each battle he won, the more ground he gained in winning the overall war.

"Alright." He let her "win." "Ready to go get your stuff?" He held out his hand to her. She stared at it and bit her lip in consternation.

"It doesn't bite."

He was right. She took his hand. "I need an aspirin," She added, provoking a short laugh as their molecules dissipated.

~~O~~

"Oh!" Amber stumbled into what she was certain was the couch and fell over. Mortified, she stood up, brushing herself off. She'd forgotten how much she hated orbing.

"Are you okay?" She could almost _hear_ his eyebrow rise with that tone of voice.

"Never been better." She insisted.

Disbelief colored his voice. "Sure. Right."

Amber stepped forward and almost tripped over a shadow in front of her which turned out to be a small sleek black cat. The cat immediately began meowing incessantly and weaving through her feet, even as she tried to make her way to the kitchen. "I know, I know." She crooned sweetly to him. "You're hungry and haven't been fed today. I'm sorry, honey."

Chris followed her into the kitchen. "Nice place." He spoke over the cat's loud complaints.

She glanced up at him while opening a can of Friskies. "Thanks. I have nothing to do anyway, so it stays pretty clean." That was so many levels of pathetic, she didn't even want to think about it.

She watched Chris lean against the counter while she tipped the can over and scraped cat food onto the plate. "What do you do? Do you work or are you in school, or what?"

Amber set the plate on the floor and straightened up. She snorted. "I used to do both until my boss turned out to be a demon and I vanquished him. Needless to say, I quit. I was taking college classes too for a long time, but I quit about six months ago because my powers were out of control, and it was getting hard to explain."

"Once we get you trained in using your powers, that won't be a problem." Chris promised. Amber felt excitement course through her. Something to do. Something interesting. She'd be able to put her life back together, go back to school. Her happiness showed plainly on her face and thoroughly mystified Chris. Wasn't this the girl who'd just been trying everything in her power to avoid what he'd just been talking about? She'd wanted nothing to do with him, yet now she looked happy at the prospect of the very thing she'd refused. The subject of his confusion disappeared off down a hallway. "I should probably throw my stuff in the car and drive over, it'll be easier." She tossed at him over her shoulder as she went.

"Fine by me." Chris agreed easily. It would have taken too many orb trips to transport her stuff. Not that all of it was going. He hoped. He watched her pile clothes into a suitcase. "How long will I be staying anyway?" She asked.  
"You need to get the hang of your powers and we have to vanquish whoever's after you. Are you positive they didn't mention anything about him?"

"Absolutely positive. But when they come after me again, we might be able to find out."

She dragged the suitcase out into the living room and left it by the door. She bundled Jasper into a carrier and put it by the suitcase. She had to climb into the attic for something, and came down, wrinkling her nose and sneezing and carrying an old book. She held it up.

A Book of Shadows. "I thought I might need it." She explained. "

"That…could be helpful. You should probably study it." He suggested.

~~O~~

He insisted on driving her car. By the look she shot him, he strongly suspected he was also driving her insane.

But then she pointed out, "You have to drive. I don't know where I'm going."

Chris wouldn't have admitted out loud to feeling slightly stupid when she reminded him of that. But that didn't stop him from feeling it anyway. Of course. She'd never driven to the Manor before. Whatever.

He caught the keys Amber tossed to him and unlocked the car. He got in the car and started it.

Settling in the passenger seat next to him, an errant thought was nagging in Amber's mind. She tried not to speak it out loud, but resisting temptation had never been her forte. She blurted, "Do you even know how to drive?" She didn't doubt that he'd do it anyway.

He looked highly offended. "Of course I know how to drive."

"You can orb. You don't need to drive." Amber said, by way of explaining why she'd asked.

"It comes in handy sometimes. Like now." He put his arm on the back of her seat, looking through the rear window as he backed out of her driveway.

Amber still wasn't sure how he'd gotten her to agree to his stupid deal, but she had, and there weren't any take-backs. And…

She was tired of fighting it. _Chris_… she looked at him out of the corner of her eye when his name cropped up in her mind. He wasn't what she expected from a whitelighter. He was nothing like any of the whitelighters she had met before. He was pushy and moody. He had an attitude problem and, she was beginning to discover, a chip on his shoulder to rival the Titanic. She liked it. All of the whitelighters she'd met before were gentle, encouraging, and so damn _nice_. She'd felt bad at first, telling them to leave, but after awhile they'd just become pests, like gnats that she'd had to swat. But he wasn't like them. If being different meant he might be able to handle being her whitelighter where others had failed, then maybe things could be okay.

"Chris… is it really necessary that I stay at the Manor?"

"Yep." He barely gave her a chance to finish her sentence.

""But I can't stay there, I mean, I don't know them."

"The sisters? They don't mind."

"Aren't they too busy fighting demons to baby-sit me?" Amber thought it was a reasonable question.

"No, protecting innocents is what they—we—do." He informed her.

"Just the same, I don't think it's necessary for me to stay here." She said mulishly.

"Yeah? I do, and as your whitelighter…"

Amber groaned. "You cannot use that against me."

"I'm just trying to help you." He shrugged, still looking at the road in front of him, thankfully. "I thought we agreed on that."

Amber was caught between amusement and irritation. He was skillfully manipulating her into agreeing to this with his whitelighter status. "You know, you really don't act like any of the whitelighters I've met."

"What can I say? I'm unique." He lifted one shoulder in a shrug of dismissal.

"I noticed." She still wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.

She shot him another glance out of the corner of her eye and as usual blurted out the first thing that came to mind without considering the consequences. "Aren't you too young to be a whitelighter?"

He almost laughed. "I was born one."

Amber had known him for less than 24 hours, and she'd already discovered her new whitelighter didn't smile often. His face tended to be either serious or completely expressionless (smirks didn't count.) She wondered if a smile would crack his face. No, she did see him smile this morning before everything went to hell and back.

"You were born one? I didn't even know that possible."

"Nobody did…" he muttered, seemingly to himself as he pulled up in front of the Manor. She got out first and propped her back against the car. "So… does that make you half dead?" She asked, sustaining a completely straight face. She watched his face carefully. He turned his face towards the ground, but she still caught the tiny smile that flew across his face before quickly dissipating.

"That's kind of disturbing when you think about it." She went on, dragging a suitcase towards the house. "Not in a bad way or anything." She added before he could take it the wrong way. She was afraid his eyebrow was going to disappear into his hair by this point in the conversation, so she gave up that tactic. Then, unexpectedly, he tossed back, "I'm _definitely_ not half-dead."

~~O~~

"What's all this stuff for?"

Chris looked up. "Training."

"Not to sound like an idiot, but how exactly are we going to use those for in training?"

It didn't really sound like a stupid question, he thought, surveying his training tools. He'd made a rough guess at what he'd need. "You copy powers right? What powers do you have right now?"

She had to think about it. "Fire. I can manipulate fire. I can blow things up, apparently. And whatever other powers any of you have."

Chris was taking down a list in his mind of the powers she must have, starting with his own, when she blurted out "Oh! I almost forgot. For some reason, I can't copy whitelighter powers."

He lifted an eyebrow. "That's good to know." He started over. She'd already had pyrokinesis. Now she could blow things up, freeze time, hmmm. She had telekinesis, his power. That would be easiest to teach. But he needed to get her more dangerous powers under control before she blew someone else up… She'd met all of the Charmed Ones. Huh. This was going to be interesting.

"You have two dangerous powers that we need to get under control _now_." He explained. "Flame manipulation and blowing things up."

Amber had the grace to look embarrassed. "Where do we start? There's a limit to how long my powers last." She'd discovered THAT the hard way.

"Wait, how long do your powers last?" Chris interjected. "These are the kinds of things I need to know."

"So far? A couple days."

"Okay… maybe we should start with this." He placed a paper ball on the counter. "Set it on fire."

Thank God. Something she actually knew how to do. More or less. She held out her hand and closed her eyes, letting adrenaline push through her system. The tips of her fingers burned, but the heat was coming from her. The paper ball burst into flames.

Chris nodded his approval, letting the sound of it leak into his voice. "Good. Let's try it now this way." He flicked a finger at the flaming paper ball and it obediently flew into the sink. Another flick of his finger turned the water on. He grabbed another paper ball and chucked it at her.

Startled, she threw out her hands in front of her face and accidentally froze it. She peered at the paper ball suspended motionless in midair. "What?" She was confused.

"Great. You did a great job at freezing. Not so much on setting fire to it." Chris informed her. "Try it again."

He plucked the paper ball out of the air and tossed it at her. This time, she was waiting for it, and turned the paper ball into a ball of flames.

"Okay, _that_ was kind of cool." He admitted when she stepped to the side and let the fireball land in the sink.

"I've always had a knack for fire." Amber grinned. She was on a roll. She loved it when she got the hang of something new. It was triumph! She couldn't help beaming.

Again, Chris ran through the options. Blowing things up… he grimaced. All they needed to work on there was her _aim_. He wanted to keep his skull intact for awhile longer. And Mom would _not_ appreciate him encouraging his charge to blow things up in the house. Maybe the basement…

He had an idea. "Go wait for me by the basement," he directed. "I'll be right there." He orbed out.

Sure thing. If she could figure out where the basement was.

~~O~~

Amber had been sitting on the steps waiting, and she stood up when she heard them coming. Well, more like felt. Two guys heading down stairs…their weight caused a bit of vibration on the steps. "What's the plan?" She wanted to know.

"Leo's going to be your target for practice." Was she imagining the self-satisfied smirk that crossed his face? She hoped so. Alarmed, she exclaimed "I'm going to throw fireballs at him?"

"It won't hurt him. He's already dead, remember?" This was meant to be reassuring.

"Then how come I'm not throwing fireballs at you?" She wondered out loud.

She thought she heard Leo snort, but wasn't sure.

"Because I'm not dead." Chris responded, sounding a little exasperated. "And I don't want to be. So please don't throw fireballs at me."

She grinned. "I'll try to remember not to."

She followed them to the basement door, but hesitated before walking down the steps. She hated basements. Especially dark ones. As soon as the light went on, she made her way down the old steps with care. She joined Chris and Leo in the middle of the room. Chris was explaining his plans. "You just keep coming at her from different places. She's going to need to be on her toes. When I find out who's after her, what he looks like, and what his powers are, we can start simulating battles with him. She'll get a better idea of what fighting him will be like."

"You guys get started; I'm going to get the Book."

He started to orb out, but Amber stopped him, "Wait!"

He stopped and looked at her, waiting for whatever she'd stopped him for. Amber bit her lip before blurting, "What are you going to do?"

"_I_ am going to watch." he said with his typical smirk, and orbed out. She stared at the spot where he'd been standing seconds before, irritated again for reasons she couldn't understand.

When she turned around, Leo was there. He grabbed her arms, and despite being completely taken unaware, she let the adrenaline rush take over. The magic literally seemed to burn through her veins and through to her fingertips. She heard sizzling flesh. Leo recoiled, loosening his grip enough for her to wrench free and fling her hand out- accidentally blowing him up. As soon as his body re-formed, she hurled a fireball at him.

Her aim was appalling— the fireball went nowhere near him. It left a perfect opening for an attack.

He took it, twisting her arms up behind her back, pushing her down with his knee, wrenching her arms away from her body.  
"Fight it." Chris instructed as Amber struggled.

Amber looked up, startled. When had he come back? He was sitting on the lower steps, paging through the Book of Shadows.

"Ignore me, fight him." He told her, noticing that she wasn't moving. "He would have killed you by now."

He was right. She felt adrenaline boiling in her blood and focused on controlling it. Flames burst from her captured hands, igniting Leo's. At the same time, she slammed her foot down on his ankle and pushed him away, using as much force as she could manage in the position she was in. He hopped away, in a very uncharacteristic way, and tried to put out the flames. Amber couldn't help the giggle that escaped her lips. She hadn't been happy in a long time. It felt… weird. Not bad. But weird.

Leo successfully put out the flames. She waited and when he orbed behind her, she whirled around and threw a fireball at him.

It missed again, hitting the wall and causing Amber to growl out loud in frustration.

The next time Leo came at her, she was ready and she managed to hit him with a fireball.

Chris was keeping an eye on the action, and he had to grin. She was improving. At least at this. But it was definitely a start.

Leo ran a brisk hand through his hair, making it stick up in little tufts. "I think I'm done for the day. You guys should take a break. Relax."

Chris didn't miss the pointed look Leo gave him. According to Leo and Piper, _and_ Paige _and_ Phoebe, he had a tendency to overwork his charges.

But when a demon could show up at any moment, he really didn't think that making sure your charge had enough breaks from practice was going to do a helluva a lot of good.

She didn't look like she needed a break. Did she? He frowned. He hadn't really been thinking about whether a break was necessary or not. He decided it was a good time for lunch anyway. "Alright." He pushed a hand through his hair and rubbed his forehead. "Let's take a break now."

Was she actually pouting? He frowned in confusion. She looked like she was about to protest. Jeez, this was confusing. Was he supposed to give her a break or not? Normally Phoebe or Paige would have been whining about how all work and no play made the Charmed Ones really pissed off. Instead of complaining or sighing in relief, Amber wondered out loud, "What are we doing after lunch?"

"Don't worry about it." Meaning he had no idea. He'd never had to teach someone how to use their powers before.

~~O~~

Chris pulled out…leftover lasagna. _When did we have this? _He wondered, staring at it. He bent slightly to sniff it, and with a wrinkled nose looked back at Amber. "Do you even _like_ lasagna?"

"I love it," She admitted. "Is it still good?"

"It's good." He hunted through the fridge and pulled out a packet of grated cheese. He evenly sprinkled a couple handfuls of cheese over the cold lasagna, tossed the cheese back in, and stuck the pan into the oven. He leaned against the counter. "So, how's training for you?"

"You were there." Amber pointed out. His lips quirked up into a half smile as he responded, "I know, I mean, do you like it? You were doing pretty well."

She beamed at the praise. "It was fun. I haven't had that much fun in a long time."

Her eyes were sparking with the passion she injected into her words.

Amber cut off her overflow of enthusiasm. _I'm talking too much,_ she realized. But her eyes crept back up to his face and she saw that he was looking at her with one eyebrow indented into what was almost a small frown. As she watched incredulously, his eyes slid down… and back up again. Why did he keep doing that? Hmm. She decided to test him.

"You did turn the oven on, right?" One eyebrow was arched inquisitively. The slight widening of his eyes was the only suggestion of a crack in his composure. He slowly slid one hand behind his back and flicked a finger. The oven dial spun, and he raised his brows and shook his head, feigning both impassiveness and surprise. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Amber was both unconvinced and amused as she glanced at the oven switch. It was, in fact, on. She could have sworn…oh well. Whatever.

It took around 15 minutes more for the lasagna to finish reheating. But it was worth the wait. Chris pulled the pan out of the oven, and the lasagna was hot and oozing cheese. He dug out a portion for himself, but, not knowing how much she wanted, he just gestured at the pan. "Help yourself."

She did, heaping a decent-sized portion onto a plate. Hey, she was granted a good meal once in awhile, and her activities of the day had ensured that she was famished. She sat down across from him at the table. Her first bite was cautious. After swallowing, she pronounced the lasagna especially good for leftovers. "Did Piper make this?" She asked.

"Yeah, she does pretty much all the cooking around here." He informed her.

"Still, it wouldn't have been nearly as good without the extra cheese you threw in." She told him.

He gave a half-smile. "Mom was a chef. I picked up some things."

Amber noted the 'was' but didn't say anything. She had become more sensitive to little things like that since her parents had…she left off the thought and focused on the food she was eating. Chris didn't miss the flash of sadness in her eyes. It was something he recognized all too well.

~~O~~

After lunch, dishes were put in the sink; things were cleaned up, and shoved out of the way. Chris stood in front of her. "We're going to work on blowing things up and freezing. Okay?" It didn't really sound like a question, but Amber found she didn't mind.

"Alright." She met his eyes straight on. "What first?"

Chris grabbed a stack of flowerpots. "Now you get to practice blowing things up."

"Where did you get those?" As far as she knew, most people didn't just keep flowerpots lying around the house.

"The garage." He answered simply, proving her wrong. Apparently, these people did keep flowerpots around. She voiced that thought, curious as to why.

"They keep a bunch of flowerpots in the garage because when demons attack, things break."  
True. She'd learned that too. With flowerpots set up all over the kitchen as targets, Amber set to work. At first, triggering Piper's power was difficult, but Chris explained, "Piper usually activates this power when she's pissed off."

That helped. One problem: her aim was really lousy. She had a feeling that by the time they were through "training", she was going to owe the Halliwells a fortune in house repair. Amber huffed in frustration and flopped into a chair.

Chris took pity on her. "Okay, let's try something new. Freeze this." He tossed another paper ball at her without warning and she threw her hands out. The ball exploded into shreds of paper.

Chris closed his eyes. Was there some unwritten rule that stated that she could only manage something when she wasn't trying? "Don't worry, just try again. You'll get the hang of it.

They tried again to no avail. For whatever reason, she couldn't manage to freeze it. She frowned. If she could just find the trigger…She saw Chris casually sweep a glass over the edge of the counter. She yelped and automatically threw out her hands to catch it. Being as she was too far away, this was a stupid idea. But the motion of her hands combined with her panic caused the glass to freeze in midair. Unfortunately, her panicked motion was a little overzealous and she landed on the floor instead. "Why would you _do_ that?" When she looked up at his face, she saw that he was smirking at her. "Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Amber was visibly steaming as she climbed back to her feet. She made a mental note not to be so overzealous.Before she could find a perfect retort, Piper walked in. All was silent while she absorbed the mess of shattered pottery on the floor. "Chris, aren't there rules about no blowing things up in the house in the future?" Her voice was deceptively calm. Chris gave her an arch look. "No, Mom. Only you have that power."

"Heh." Came out through Piper's clenched teeth. "Great. Clean it up."

Amber reached for the broom to sweep up the mess, but when she turned around, the broken pottery shards were floating into the trash can.

"Hey, you-"

"Shouldn't use magic for personal gain," He finished for her. "I know." One of the many things his mother had spent years trying to teach him (and he frequently ignored) was no magic for personal gain. What was the point if you couldn't use them for things like this? Then again, he probably shouldn't be teaching his charge things like that.

She made a face at him. "You did."

"Yeah, well, I was being a bad example."

"I noticed!" She laughed. "You don't specialize in being a good example, do you?"

He made a face at her but couldn't argue with that. He really needed to get used to this whole whitelighter thing. But being different was what made her agree to be his charge- and as long as it was working, he had no reason to doubt himself. Good examples were overrated, he decided.

~~O~~

Something was bothering Amber now. It didn't take long for her to give in to her curiosity and ask the question she'd been dying to ask.

"Why'd you call Piper mom?" She couldn't have been any more than ten years older than him.

He looked up. "…She _is_ my mom." He said this slowly, not entirely sure if he should be saying it. This only confused Amber more. "She looks really good for her age then." She threw out with a raised eyebrow, indicating she'd like more information. "I mean, how old are you? 21, 22?"

A flash of a smile in response to that, but he didn't offer her any clarification on his actual age. "Yeah. I'm from the future."

Her mouth fell open in shock at the last answer she'd expected to hear. In her brief time spent in the world of magic, she had yet to meet a time traveler.

"Only a little over twenty years, though." He added quickly. "I'm Piper and Leo's son." It was with some reluctance that he mentioned who his father was. He wasn't sure how much to tell her, what was necessary, and if it even mattered at all. He didn't think she would really be affected in any negative ways by knowing, and she was looking at him expectantly..."The future wasn't so great, so I came back here to change it." He decided to leave it at that for now. Keep it simple.

Amber closed her mouth and thought about that. She didn't want to know what the future was like. Especially if it was bad enough to make him come back to make things different.

After giving her a moment to digest the shocking new information, Chris changed the subject. "Come on. I don't feel like ducking every time you're in a bad mood."


	4. Chapter 4

I really enjoyed writing this chapter; it's my favorite so far. Let me know what you think

Disclaimer: Third times the charm? I don't own Charmed.

_**Chapter Three**_

"Ow!" Her butt hit the floor with a painfully loud thud. Again. Despite the fact that she'd been practicing for the past 3 weeks, she _still_ couldn't manage to levitate properly.

She got up and dusted her rear end off, her face already turning an embarrassed pink. She ignored the smirk on Chris' face and informed firmly informed him, "I've had enough falling on my ass for one day."

"Okay. That's fine." Chris agreed. "You've been doing well."

Amber narrowed her eyes playfully at him. "Wow. Mr. Workaholic is letting me off early today. Any reason in particular?"

Chris was caught a little off guard. He knew he had a tendency of overdoing things, but he hadn't realized he was that bad. He shrugged it off and commented lightly, "Hey, can't a guy be in a good mood?"

Amber detected the flash of uncertainty in his eye before his reply and wondered if something she said was bothering him. "There's nothing wrong with it, you know. Working hard. I don't mind."

She swore she saw traces of a smile lingering around his lips in response, but chalked it up to imagination. She couldn't find anything amusing in what she'd said. He didn't say anything else, and Amber decided to leave him alone and seek out Jasper.

She found him in the attic curled up in a box. She smiled affectionately and scratched gently behind his ears. "Hey, Jazz. Were you up here all day?" she asked him rhetorically over his resounding purrs. She picked him up to take him back downstairs, but the cat started twisting and hissing and spitting angrily. Something was wrong. Goosebumps popped up across her skin and she sensed a presence that radiated wrongness, setting of intuitive alarm bells in her system. A voice sounded behind her. "I see you escaped my cage, little witch." She spun around but there was nothing there. Jasper was snarling- he dug his claws in, drawing blood, and she dropped him. She turned around again and saw him standing there. He held out his hand towards her and at first she was confused. Then he slowly wrapped his fingers around an invisible object as though he were clutching something. She felt her throat closing—her throat was being brutally crushed. She couldn't breathe! As the oxygen left her brain, of all the idiotic things she could be thinking about when being strangled, foremost in her mind was, _This is going to leave some killer bruises._

He released his grip and she dropped to the floor.

Downstairs, the sounds of an angry cat and thumps alerted everyone to danger. Chris orbed up to the attic immediately, Paige on his heels. It was immediately clear what had happened. Amber lay on her side on the floor, facing away from them- and the warlock stood several feet away, pulling an athame out of a cloth sheath. Chris wasted no time in dropping to Amber's side, rolling her over and checking her pulse while wincing at the purpling bruises flowering on her neck. The warlock, hearing the thundering footsteps up the stairs, clearly realized he was about to be severely outnumbered and blinked out.

There was a moment of complete silence. Then Piper spoke from the doorway. "I think now would be a good time to check the Book of Shadows."

Chris sat on the couch, thumbing through the Book impatiently. The now-healed Amber was sitting next to him, peering over his shoulder. "What I don't get," Chris sounded frustrated, "Is why he waited so long to attack."

"We know he won't kill her. At least not yet." Leo pointed out. "He needs her powers first."

Amber pointed at a page illustrated with a picture of the man that had attacked her. "That's him."

She was right. "Xypher." Chris read the page, and then looked up. "An overblown warlock on a power trip."

Paige stood up. "Sounds easy. Let's vanquish him."

"No." Chris and Leo said at the same time. Chris shot Leo an irritated look. His charge, his decision. He explained. "Amber has to do this on her own. It's the only way she'll get stronger."

"Exactly." Leo agreed. Paige looked disappointed, and Phoebe patted her knee, saying, "Sweetie, he's right. We can't fight her battles for her or she'll never learn."

"I guess." Paige said reluctantly.

"How is he killed?" Amber inquired. Her knee was brushing Chris's and she shifted it away. Chris glanced at her. "Warlocks, in principle, are pretty easy to kill. They're cowards. They run away if they think they're going to get their asses kicked. You shouldn't have any problems." He added.

That was comforting. A little. Chris was still thinking. "We'll work on vanquishing demons tomorrow." He said aloud.

"Really?" Her interest peaked. They'd only been doing safe lessons, no demons to speak of. She was excited at the prospect of finally doing something- other than blowing up soda cans. Then she had a realization. What if she went through a repeat of the fight with the warlock? That was horrible. She'd completely failed at what must have been some cosmic test. She'd completely messed up. She hadn't been able to fight him, hadn't even thought of it. She gathered Jasper into her arms and stood up. The small black cat purred contentedly. At least _he'd_ recovered from the fight with no serious side effects.

"I'm going to bed." She said to the general company. "Let me know if anything important comes up." She turned and headed up the stairs. She went into her temporary bedroom and closed the door quietly behind her. She slowly changed into black and purple striped pajama pants and a lacy black camisole. She went through her preparation for bed, and slid in between the covers. She kept thinking over and over about the attack. How was she supposed to achieve this magical destiny if she couldn't properly fight off a warlock? Granted, it was her first try but still. That didn't matter. If Chris hadn't shown up when he did, she'd be dead. That shouldn't have happened. She should have been able to defend herself without help. She considered it, agonizing over and over about what she could have done to change the outcome. She was so deep in depressing thoughts that she jerked in surprise when she caught sight of glittering orbs in her peripheral vision. Chris. She sat straight up in bed, outrage written all over face. Seeing her expression caused Chris to take a couple of steps backwards in consternation.

"What?" He asked defensively.

"Oh, my God. You can't just orb in here. What if I'd been changing?" Amber exclaimed.

"You weren't changing." Chris pointed out uncomfortably.

"Not the point. If I had, my privacy would have been severely violated just now. What do you have to say about that?" She demanded.

_Is it possible to get unassigned from a charge for reports of sexual harassment?_ He wondered, mortified. She didn't actually seem mad, though. He had a feeling she was teasing him. He tried to change the subject. "I'd really rather not discuss this."

"Of course you don't. Because you know I'm right."

Still defensive, he blurted again, "You weren't changing."

"Yeah, but if you keep orbing in here unexpectedly, I might be. What would happen then?" She folded her arms and waited expectantly for an answer.

Chris sputtered slightly. "I really don't see any need to discuss this."

"Ooh, I'm making you uncomfortable. Is that why you're trying to avoid talking about it?" One brow arched and her lips tilted up into an infuriating smile.

"Because it's completely irrelevant."

"I don't think so. Honestly. What would happen if you orbed in here when I was changing?"  
Chris licked his lips. Amber's eyes followed the motion curiously. "Can we _please_ not talk about this? You just don't want to talk about what I really came up to talk to you about." He quickly changed the subject to the reason he had come up there to start with.

Amber proverbially dug in her heels. "There's nothing to talk about."

He looked amused. "Now who's avoiding the subject? Come on, Amber. I'm your whitelighter. Get used to it. We're going to be talking a lot. What's wrong?

"I was thinking about the warlock attack." Amber admitted. "I was terrible. If it weren't for you, I would have died. Some witch I am." She brought her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. Chris sat on the end of her bed. "Hey, don't think like that. It was your first attack. You can't expect to be good at something the first time you do it. It takes time."

She looked at him. "If it were any of you, you would have been fine. You would have been able to fight him off, no problem. I just wasn't good enough." She stared at the wall.

"That's definitely not true. You were caught by surprise. Even one of the sisters would have panicked and might have gotten into the same situation. Trust me," He told her truthfully, "I've seen it happen. A lot. And we've all done this before."

There was a tap at the door before it slowly swung open slightly. Phoebe's head popped in. "Amber…oh. Oh, Chris. I see. Sorry, didn't mean to….sorry..." Phoebe disappeared and the door closed. Chris returned his eyes to Amber. She narrowed her eyes slightly at him, trying to discern if he was lying. She knew immediately that he was telling the truth. She didn't understand how, she just knew. "Thanks." She offered him a small smile. "How'd you even know something was bugging me?"

"Please." He snorted. "It wouldn't have taken Einstein to figure that out. They were worried about you downstairs. Besides, I can sense disturbances in your thoughts. That's how I know when you need help."

Amber made a face. "Great. That's not uncomfortable at all. You know what I'm thinking."

"No, no. I can tell when you need help. Your brain sends out signals like a radio frequency when you're upset or hurt, or in some kind of trouble. I can't read your thoughts."

Thank God. There was a pause, and then he continued "Look, if you need help, or to talk or something, just say my name, okay?"

"Okay." She agreed. Chris stood up.

"Hey, Chris?"

"Yeah?" He looked at her.

"I feel better. Thanks."

"Great." He sounded relieved. "Get some sleep." He started orb out.

"Wait, Chris?" There was one more thing she had to say before he left.

His body reformed. "What?"

"Next time knock or something."

He laughed.

~~O~~

She woke up feeling mingled excitement and nerves. Her first demon battle. Well, maybe more than one. She was so nervous. She'd never fought a real demon before. Except for the warlock yesterday. But it was better not to think about that because when she did, she got sick to her stomach.

She hesitated before entering the kitchen. Chris was already there, leaning against the counter, talking with Piper, who was, as had become usual, fixing breakfast. Piper stuck a plate on the table. Eggs, toast, and bacon. "Eat, eat, eat." Piper ordered. "Trust me, you're gonna need it."

Amber picked up the plate. There was no way she'd be able to sit down. Too twitchy. She was nervous and she couldn't sit down when she was nervous. She took a spot leaning against the counter by Chris, snagged a piece of bacon up and started eating. Chris took the opportunity to give her an idea of what they'd be doing that day. "We're just going after average-Joe demons, probably mostly energy and fireballs. It should be pretty easy; you know how to use fireballs already."

Amber nodded, but it didn't calm her nerves knowing it. She was still excited, but the anxiety was front and center right now. She piled egg onto her toast and bit into it.

"Amber, come on." Chris's voice, growing more exasperated than the last time he'd said it. "It's time to go."

"Um… I still have to blow dry my hair." She lied.

"Really? Because it seems like that's what you've been doing for the last twenty minutes." He pointed out, making her grimace- even though he couldn't see her. Momentarily she heard him orb in behind her. "See, your hair looks great, let's go."

She sighed, knowing perfectly well that she couldn't put him off forever… and she had to get back on the horse eventually. _Like swimming at the lake,_ she told herself. _Just jump in._

~~O~~

It wasn't the nicest alley she'd ever walked through. Chris had been strolling several paces behind her, so he could keep an eye on her but not interfere unless necessary. Amber tried not to look over her shoulder at him, which made it all the more tempting to.

She gave in and peeked over her shoulder nervously again.

"I'm not going anywhere," He reminded her with a surprising amount of patience. "I'll be here if anything goes wrong."

She wandered past a large blue dumpster, peering from side to side cautiously. She spotted movement in her peripheral vision and whipped her head towards it. An ugly misshapen creature was bent over something oozing red on the ground. She paused and stared at it, unable to move. It looked up, something having alerted it to her presence—instinct, perhaps—and emitted a strange hissing noise. Suddenly it was a blue-grey mass hurtling towards her. She automatically threw her hands up, panicking, and it froze in midair. She inspected it warily. Chris came jogging up as she exclaimed, "What the hell is this thing?"

"Gemini demon. They're pretty common in the future. They eat demon leftovers…kind of like demonic raccoons."

Amber was staring at the bloody object on the ground near the dumpster. "When you say demon leftovers, you mean…?"

"Anything left over from a vanquish." Disgust marred his face.

"Great…" She felt like throwing up.

"Uh, one thing." Chris was looking around the alley, carefully searching. "They always travel in pairs. And you might want to vanquish that thing before it unfreezes." He said, sending a wary look towards the frozen demon. A strange hissing sound informed Amber that the second demon wasn't far. She looked around quickly and spotted the hideous blue grey goblin-like creature clinging to the chain link fence. She flung a hand towards it and blew it up. She turned back to the frozen demon and blew it up as well.

"Not bad." Chris commented. "Now, we find the _real_ demon."

"You mean that _wasn't_ the real demon?" Amber's voice trailed as they continued down the alley.

"It's really cute how you think you're funny…"

~~O~~

"Huh!" Amber grunted as she took a swipe from a burly demon. She skidded across the pavement and rolled. Coming up into a crouch, she hurled a fireball at one and deflected a fireball from the other, killing both at the same time. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins, and her expression was that of fierce pleasure. She turned to look at Chris. "What next?"

His eyes had widened with some interest after seeing her vanquish the two demons. With two different powers no less. He checked his watch. "Actually, I'm thinking it's about time for lunch." It was well after noon and they'd already vanquished a few demons. Amber cocked her head to the side. "Lunch?"

He gave her a funny look. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Yeah, but…"

Chris interrupted. "It's not like it's for fun…it's just, I should probably try to get to know you as a charge."

Offended, Amber muttered, "I didn't realize that would be such a trial for you."

He threw her one of his typical half-smiles. "I didn't mean it that way. I just meant since I'm your whitelighter, I should probably spend time with you sometimes." He thought that's the way it was supposed to work.

"Okay, so lunch. How are we getting there? We orbed here."

He looked at her like she was stating the obvious. It dawned on her momentarily. "No way, that's too—!" Before she could finish protesting, Chris grabbed her hand and orbed. They rematerialized right outside of a building. He pulled her against the wall out of view and glanced around to make sure no one had seen two people materialize out of thin air.

"Why did you do that? What if someone saw us?" Amber hissed at him, irritation covering up that she was flustered. She quickly removed her hand from his grip. He rolled his eyes at her and peered around the corner. "Relax, no one saw us. See, no one's over here."

She was about to remind him that he couldn't have known that when he orbed…although who knew, maybe he could have…but he grasped her hand again, much to her discomfort, and tugged her around the corner and into a café.

They ended up sitting at a table outside in the afternoon sunlight. Amber really wasn't paying attention when she ordered, so it came as a slight surprise to her when what looked like a chicken sandwich and salad of some sort was placed in front of her. She flashed him a teasing smile. "If this is where you take your friends, I'd love to see where you take your dates."

"I don't really date. Too busy." He deflected her teasing. She couldn't find anything to say to that. That she would _say_, anyway. Instead she changed the subject. "Now, we're working on our friendship?"

"Whitelighter- charge." He clarified. "First off," he leaned forward confidentially, unleashing the hypnotic power of his half-lidded green eyes on her. "You have to tell me sometime." His voice snapped her out of her… ogling. Oh. Right. He'd still been talking. She closed her mouth, which had been hanging slightly open. "Huh?" was her inspired response. Patiently, he repeated the original question. "What happened with your first whitelighter?"

Amber sucked in her breath, but she'd known this would come. She owed him an explanation, even if he hadn't heeded her warning. It's just that, she'd discovered something she'd been missing in her life—a purpose—and now she was afraid that if he found out what happened to Ethan, he wouldn't want to be anywhere near her anymore.

There was only one way to start. The beginning. "It really started when I was a toddler. My powers started to show and everyone realized how dangerous I was. They bound my powers to protect…everyone, really. But I don't think they counted on dying before they had the chance to make it permanent. I got my powers back, and I had no idea that I'd ever _had_ them. I killed my boss by accident…oh, he was a demon, so it was okay." She reassured him, seeing the expression on his face. "Ethan showed up and explained everything to me. He started working with me for to train my powers so that I could lead a more or less normal life. He didn't want to bind my powers again, and I wouldn't have let him. Things were fine." Her expression darkened. "Then _he_ destroyed the singular good thing in my life."

_Remembering brought her back. It was one of her clearest memories. Ethan had been helping her to harness her fire-hurling power when she heard the faint clicking sound. Ethan froze completely still. He pivoted slowly to face a man holding a loaded crossbow. Amber was horrified at the smirk twisting the man's face. No, he wasn't a man; he was a demon of some sort. She realized that the crossbow wasn't focused on Ethan, it was directed towards her. The demon opened his mouth and said—_

"Darklighter."

Amber looked up at Chris, confused. "What?"

"It was a darklighter, not a demon." He waved it off. "Keep talking, I'll tell you later."

Amber frowned but continued.

_The darklighter opened his mouth and said to Ethan, "You didn't think you could protect your little protégé for long, did you? You thought we would let her live?" He aimed the crossbow. Amber stopped breathing. The arrow was aimed at the spot directly over her heart when he released the arrow. Ethan grabbed her and pulled her in, turning to block the arrow from her with his back._

"Wait, what? He blocked you from a darklighter arrow? That makes _no_ sense."

Chris interrupted, one brow wrinkled in confusion.

"Is it really that weird? I mean, demons come after me because of my power all the time."

Chris shook his head. "Not dark-lighters. They go after whitelighters. That's all they do. Between you and this Ethan guy, he should have aiming for him."

"I don't know. He aimed for me and Ethan took the arrow."

Chris was frustrated. "I don't get it. Why would he aim for you and why would the whitelighter take the arrow for you? Darklighter poison is only lethal to whitelighters."

Amber hadn't known that. Now she wondered at the reasons Ethan could have had for wanting to block an arrow that wouldn't have killed her, but certainly killed him.

Amber walked into the sunroom where Phoebe was sitting in a chair, chewing the end of a pen and staring blankly at her laptop screen. "Hard at work?"

Phoebe jumped. "Sheesh, Amber, where'd you come from?"

"I just walked in." Amber gestured behind her. "You must've really been into," she nosily peered over Phoebe's shoulder, "Whatever you're doing."

Phoebe made a face. "Trying to work on my column. I've just been a little distracted lately." She pushed away from her laptop and looked up at Amber with an enthused smile (probably the only one she'd worn all day) "So, how did your first demon fight go?"

"It was fun." Amber told her truthfully. "It made me realize how empty my life was before. I feel like I have something worth living for again."

Phoebe's dark eyes were intent on her face. "How's it working out with Chris? Is he working you to death?

"I like it. It's hard to find people as… determined as me." Amber said diplomatically. Phoebe looked at her incredulously. She snapped closed her laptop and stood up. "He's tough to work with. He worked us like dogs. Only most dogs get treats."

Amber followed Phoebe into the kitchen, where Phoebe commenced fixing a snack. "Really? He took me to lunch today."

Phoebe looked up from where she was struggling to open a jar of jelly, intrigued. "Seriously? Wait, was it a date?" Her eyes sparkled with interest.

"No. He made it pretty clear that it wasn't." She answered.

Phoebe's empathy senses tingled. "Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry." She put a sympathetic hand on Amber's shoulder. Amber gave her a bewildered look. "For what? There's nothing to be sorry for."

Phoebe frowned. Maybe her empathy was off. Amber seemed genuinely confused by her concern. Unless she was sensing something that Amber didn't realize she was feeling. "That reminds me. How are you doing? You were upset last night."

Amber was still getting used to this whole weird empath thing Phoebe had going on. Especially since she had the ability now as well, feeling other people's feelings was so uncomfortable. It had taken her weeks to gain a handle on the ability. The first couple weeks had been the worst. She'd

been channeling other people's feelings and it had led to some really awkward situations…luckily she didn't have the power all the time. She liked Phoebe and didn't want to avoid her, but when she didn't, she had to use more effort than normal to hold on to her sanity.

"I'm feeling better, thanks." Amber told her. "Fighting the demons this morning helped. I just felt awful though, before."

"I know." Phoebe blurted out. "It's okay. I know exactly how you feel."

"Of course you do, you're an empath. You know exactly how _everyone_ feels." Amber pointed out.

"No, no. I mean, I've been there. A few years ago, my premonitions were my only power, and I felt so useless. Prue had her telekinesis and Piper could freeze things, but I didn't have any sort of demon-ass kicking power."

"Yeah, but I have more power than I want," Amber reminded her. "I kicked some serious demon ass today, so my ego took a boost."

"Great. But if you ever need to talk, just ask Phoebe." She grimaced at her own pun and then, glancing in the general direction of her laptop, grimaced again. "Everyone else does."

Amber held off a laugh and left Phoebe to struggle with her column.

Amber sought out Chris later that day. She found him on the couch, flipping through the Book of Shadows. She sat down at the other end of the couch, carefully avoiding his foot, which rested a couple inches away.

Chris pulled his foot up a bit. He'd noticed that for some weird reason, she kept physical contact with him as minimal as she could. Why, he had no idea. She didn't seem to have issues with anyone else.

"So when are we going to rid the world of more evil? Ooh, I could be a superhero." She beamed at the thought. His mouth twitched in response. "Soon."

"Always so cryptic." She huffed irritably at him. "Are you capable of giving a detailed answer to anything?" She didn't think so.

If he offered a response, she didn't hear it because her eyes fell on a dark figure that had seemed to materialize behind Chris. Xypher! She scrambled off the couch and threw out her hands to blow him up. She missed Xypher, but managed to blow up a vase. She was sure Piper wouldn't be thrilled about that later. Chris orbed out of the way the same moment that Amber tried to blow Xypher up again. "Dammit!" She exclaimed when she missed again, thanks to the distraction the orbing presented. "Try freezing him." Chris suggested from behind her. She was momentarily irritated. He looked perfectly calm considering they were under an attack from a WARLOCK. Could he possibly be a little less cool and collected under the circumstances? At least he was helping. She threw out a hand to freeze the warlock and missed yet _again_. She threw out both hands in frustration and Xypher exploded into tiny orbs. _Orbs?_ That wasn't supposed to happen. The orbs reformed into a sheepish looking Leo. She glared at him immediately. "Leo! That wasn't nice!" She smacked his arm angrily. "Hey, it wasn't my idea." Leo defended himself. "Chris asked me to as a favor to see if you were ready to fight Xypher."

Amber's eyes went wide. Her aggravation renewed and forgetting that she didn't normally touch him, she swatted Chris' side, "Chris! Could you have at least warned me?" She complained.

"No, that would kind of defeat the purpose." Chris pointed out reasonably, "Besides, it worked, didn't it?"

Amber blinked up at him. She was beginning to wonder if _she_ was the one in over her head here.

A/N—

Thank you to those who have reviewed/favorited/alerted for this story so far, I appreciate it OCs are pretty hit-or-miss and it's really important for them to be relatable, I think. I might have different problems than Amber but I definitely feel like I can relate to her.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter Four**_

Chris was dozing on the couch in his room in P3 when he heard her call. It took him a minute to gather his thoughts. God, he was tired. He leaned forward, head in his hands, trying to focus properly on orbing to the Manor. Both tired and not expecting to end up on the stairs, he tumbled backwards down the stairs upon landing. Pain shot through his leg when he hit the floor, his foot twisted slightly. "Ahh!" He winced and gripped his leg. Piper's eyes widened. "Honey, are you okay?" Piper started down the stairs toward him. Chris held up a hand, "I'm fine, Mom. Really. Don't worry about it." He promptly orbed out again.

"Chris, get back here!" Piper called out. No response. She looked back at Leo, "Do you think he's okay?"

"I'm sure he's fine." Leo's brow indented slightly. "He looked okay. Maybe just twisted his ankle, nothing too serious. If he wants, I can heal it for him later."

"You know Chris." Piper scoffed at him. "He's not going to ask you to heal it. He'll deal with it on his own and that's just not healthy." She fretted.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll go and check on him, and see if there's anything I can do." Leo's voice was deliberately calm and rational to soothe his wife.

~~O~~

Leo orbed into Chris' room. He saw his son sitting on the made up couch he slept on. He was probing his ankle, wincing in pain. "Chris, are you sure you're okay?"

Chris pulled his hand away from his ankle. "I'm fine, Leo. Really."

"Are you sure you don't want me to heal you?" Leo asked.

"I'm sure. Besides, isn't it supposed to be against the rules or something to heal wounds that aren't from demons?"

Leo frowned uneasily. He'd slipped up on that a lot more over the past couple of years than he realistically should have. It wasn't like the other Elders kept an eye out for things like that, and keeping his family healthy and safe were more important to him. "If it gets worse, just ask and I'll heal it for you."

"Thanks." Chris answered, but his eyes flicked to the ceiling in annoyance. As soon as Leo orbed out, Chris leaned against the couch cushion, putting a hand to his forehead.

~~O~~

"Where's Chris?" Amber asked Paige in the morning while Paige was eating breakfast. Paige shrugged. "I don't know. I never see anyone these days. This job is killing me." She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Chris, get your lazy ass in here."

Chris orbed in. He looked exhausted. His eyes were shadowed and his complexion was paler than usual.

"Jeez, Chris, what's wrong? You look like you haven't slept in a week." Paige exclaimed.

"I kind of haven't." He informed her.

"That sucks. Well, I have to get to work. Good luck with getting some sleep. See ya!" Paige strode out of the kitchen jauntily. Amber stared after her, somewhat amazed. "How considerate."

"Yeah, she's really something." His voice was dull. He turned to walk into the living room. Amber noticed that he was limping. "Chris, are you okay?" She asked, concerned. He didn't seem like the type to mention it when he was hurt.

"I'm fine." Proof of point. She glanced down at his leg and back up. "Do you mind if I take a look?"

"Uh, sure. Go ahead." He dropped down onto the couch.

"It's your ankle, right?" She pushed his pant leg up a bit and palpated the ankle with delicate fingers. "Ouch!" He exclaimed when she pressed more firmly. She looked back up at him. "It's just sprained. It should be fine. You really need to lie down and take the pressure off, or it might get worse." She was fully acquainted with the fact that Chris had a tendency to overdo things. "I'll be right back." She dashed up the stairs. She rummaged through a cupboard and pulled out a few extra pillows. She dashed back down the stairs and presented the pillows. He looked at her dubiously. She responded by planting a hand on her hip. "Trust me, you need to elevate it." She handed him a pillow to tuck behind his head and helped him prop his ankle up on a small stack of pillows.

To his intense relief, Chris felt better. "Uh, thanks." He leaned back against the pillow. "So, what am I supposed to do if I'm stuck here all day?" He asked grumpily.

The answer seemed obvious, but Amber humored him. "Sleep. Rest. Nap. Whatever you want. You look really wiped. Maybe this twisted ankle is a good thing."

He flashed a quick, insincere smile, but she was too distracted to notice. Her empathy senses

were tingling, which astonished her. She was sure that this was the first time that she'd ever felt any flicker of emotion from him. All she usually ever sensed from him was the wall that he put up to keep people out. It bothered her to see him shut people out so much. But now she felt…he felt, that is, it was so hard to distinguish who was feeling what, but she picked out the feelings that weren't hers. He was stressed and exhausted and extremely frustrated. Biting her lip as she looked at him, she had an idea. It was out of her comfort zone, but she had a feeling that it would help a lot. "Can I try something?" She asked him, holding up her hands.

"Sure." He responded. It's not like whatever she was going to do could make it worse. Unless it was- "It's not acupuncture or something, right?"

She laughed. "Definitely not." She perched precariously on the arm of the couch behind him. She hesitated twice before laying her hands lightly on his shoulders. Sheesh, he was tense. She manipulated the muscles in his shoulders and neck, applying pressure with her thumbs between his shoulder blades, working her way steadily up to the back of his neck. It bothered her, thinking about how Paige had brushed off Chris's exhaustion and ignored his limp. Didn't anyone else care if he was okay or not?

Chris rolled his head to the side, eyelids falling closed. A faint groan issued from his throat as the tension slipped away. Too relaxed to even notice he was falling asleep, he drifted off. After she felt satisfied that she'd worked the kinks out and Chris was snoring lightly, she pulled her hands away and stretched them..

~~O~~

Amber was up and about bright and early in the morning. She headed out first thing after breakfast to pick up some stuff. She came back around eight with bags from various stores and dropped them on the table. She immediately poked her head into the living room, curious as to whether Chris was awake, or even still there. Sure enough, he was sitting up, one leg extended, the other bent. He'd picked up one of the books she'd left on the floor last night and was reading it. He was intent on reading until she walked in.

"Feeling better?" She asked him. He looked up sharply, but there was no other indication that he hadn't been expecting to see her there. "Yeah, actually, thanks."

This was something _she_ hadn't been expecting. "For what?"

"Yesterday."

"Oh. Right. Any time." She told him, feeling blood rush to her cheeks, desperately hoping that he wouldn't notice. She hated blushing. It always embarrassed her, which naturally made her blush more. Thankfully, he didn't notice, or if he did, he didn't say anything. Now that she thought of it, his expression had changed from thoughtfulness from what she'd said to what she dared not call a…devious expression.

"You mean that?" Yep. Definitely devious. She narrowed her eyes at him in mock suspicion, a smile playing about her lips. "Yes, I do."

He shifted uncomfortably and brought a hand to his shoulder, wincing. "I think I slept on my shoulder funny, or something. Think you can help me out?"

Amber turned her head slightly, trying to decide whether he was telling the truth or fibbing. She nearly burst out laughing at his expression. It was the most adorably pathetic puppy pout she'd ever seen. She wouldn't move for fear he would drop the overwhelmingly attractive expression. She blinked a few times and brought herself to respond. "Absolutely. I have to go put some stuff away first, though, k?"

She escaped into the kitchen with her groceries and reached into one of the bags to start absent-

mindedly putting things away. She jumped a foot in the foot in the air when Phoebe's voice came out of nowhere. "I don't think that goes in there."

"Huh?" Amber looked down at the object she was about to put in the freezer. "Oh! Crap." She blushed darkly. She'd been about to stick a DVD in the freezer. "I did not just do that."

Phoebe wasn't about to let it go. "Yes, you did. I saw it with my own two eyes."

Amber whipped toward her, about to make a cutting remark- her temper always heated when she was embarrassed. But she saw that Phoebe's dark eyes were sparkling and her smile was mischievous, and relaxed into a sheepish responding smile.

"And I don't think that this—" Phoebe pulled a tub of ice cream out of a cabinet "Goes in here. Yeah, you might want to put _that_ in the freezer." Amber complied, her blush deepening still more.

"Distracted?" Phoebe's eyes were knowing. Amber turned her own eyes away. Pointless, as Phoebe didn't need to see her face to know what she was feeling. "Just a little."

Phoebe smothered her snort of laughter. "If that's 'just a little' distracted, I'd love to see really distracted."

True. It didn't get much more distracted than sticking a DVD into the fridge.

"Your nephew has one wicked puppy pout." Amber admitted to Phoebe. "It was overwhelming. Anyone would have been distracted." Her voice was slightly higher in her defensiveness.

"Of course they would."

Amber folded her arms, knowing perfectly well that Phoebe was only agreeing to placate her.

Phoebe raised her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. I believe you."

"Thank you." Amber checked all the cupboards and the fridge and freezer to make sure she hadn't put anything else out of place. There was another DVD in a cabinet and a bag of chips in the fridge, but other than that, everything had wound up where it was supposed to be. She grabbed the movies and went back into the living room. She fanned the movies out on the table. "I kind of figured you'd be bored, so I thought I'd pick up some things to keep you entertained. But I didn't know what movies you'd be into, so I just guessed."

Chris sifted through the movies. Bourne Identity…what was this? He picked up a movie to inspect more closely.

He put it down, shaking his head. "You mind putting this one on?" He handed her a movie. She flicked the case open and carefully removed the silvery disk, which she slid into the DVD player. She sat down on the arm of the couch again and set to working the kinks out of Chris' shoulders.

Amber got up, stretching, and wandered into the kitchen to get something. They had gone through an entire trilogy, even opting to eat dinner in front of the television, which had annoyed Piper to no end. Chris pulled himself up into a sitting position when he heard Leo orb in. Amber swept back into the room with a pint of ice cream. "Want some?" She twirled a spoon. A smile broke out on his face. "Thanks." He accepted both spoon and ice cream. When Amber disappeared into the other room, Leo didn't miss the satisfied smirk on Chris's face. He bent over the side of the couch, raising his eyebrows at his son. "I thought you were fine."

"Hey, what would you do in my place?"

"Exactly what place is that?" Leo straightened up. Chris stared at him as though the answer were obvious. He held his hand palm up. "I've had three shoulder massages since waking up this morning, I've got a beautiful girl waiting on me hand and foot. How has _your_ day been?" He had a definite point with that, but that smug smile was getting annoying. Leo's eyebrow wrinkled in a frown as he thought about the situation. He couldn't have Amber's whitelighter out with a sprained ankle. "The usual; tried to negotiate with some vampires about the war they're waging in Los Angeles. I barely orbed out with my neck intact. Oh, and rescued one of my charges from a darklighter." His tone was off-hand but as he spoke, he reached over the couch and started healing Chris' ankle. He kept glancing up towards the doorway to make sure Amber hadn't walked in yet. He pulled his hand away and put one finger to his lips as if cautioning him not to tell. He orbed out just as Amber came back in with a bowl of ice cream for herself and a pack of cards. "Play cards with me?" She pleaded.

He smirked to himself. "Why not?" He had a great poker face. She handed him the pack of cards to shuffle.

_**I'll make up for the shortness/boringness of this chapter by uploading the next one sooner. I almost didn't bother with this chapter, but I felt like Chris deserved the chance to relax and I've noticed that the sisters are rarely sympathetic to what's going on with him and I didn't think that would sit well with Amber.**_

_**Also, **_**welcome to mystery 11235** _**asked several really good questions, some of which will be answered in future chapters and a couple I don't mind answering now. Her reasons for not being comfortable with touching him (although she goes out of her comfort zone with that in this chapter) are kind of silly, but she's worried that if she touches him, she's going to give away her feelings to him somehow and that's something she wants to keep to herself. As to how she felt about Ethan, I myself was wondering about that. She wasn't in love with him, I think she kind of idolized him. When he died for her she was both horrified by it and, in a sense, she felt betrayed by fate. Her feelings for Ethan are definitely very different from how she feels about Chris. Ethan also probably had a good 10 years in age on Chris, not that it makes a difference when it comes to love.**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**I felt so bad about the shortness of the last chapter that I decided upload this today. That and I couldn't resist. I hope you guys like it and please, please review!**_

_**Chapter Five**_

Phoebe breezed into the kitchen where Amber was observing Chris at work on dinner. All three of the Charmed Ones had plans. Paige was still at work, Piper was out with friends, making another attempt at a normal life, and Phoebe had yet another of her many dates. She seemed to be making a hobby out of it. She reached for her car keys when she got a serious empathic vibe.

She pinched Amber's arm.

"Ow! Hi, Phoebe. What was that for?" She complained. Phoebe glanced at Chris, then made a face at Amber. "Do me a favor and just _try _not to check out my nephew around me? It's really creepy. Really, really creepy." She kept her voice low enough that only Amber could hear her. Amber wrinkled her nose at her. "Mind your own business."

"I'd love to but with this power, that's pretty much impossible." Phoebe countered. Chris looked up, wondering what all the whispering was about. They weren't talking about him, were they? When he shot them a suspicious look, Phoebe asked, "So how's your ankle doing, Chris?"

He appeared mollified. "Much better, thanks."

"Good, good." Phoebe grabbed her keys.

"Where are you going, Phoebe?" Amber asked. It appeared that everyone had somewhere to be tonight, except for her and of course, Chris.

"Oh, I have a date." Phoebe gave a quick grin. "

"Who is it this week? Ryan or Scott?" Chris cracked.

"Neither." Phoebe lifted her chin. "It's Sergio."

"Sergio. Right." Chris shook his head, both exasperated and entertained by her speed-dating love life. He knew exactly who she was going to marry, but he couldn't say a word or he might not have an uncle in the future.

"So what are you two up to tonight?" There was a mischievous glint in Phoebe's eyes.

"Just making dinner. Hanging out." Chris shrugged. "Nothing planned. I think we should go after this Xypher guy tomorrow, get rid of him."

"You do that. Have fun. Hope it doesn't rain. It's looking cloudy." Phoebe walked out, calling over her shoulder, "Ciao!"

Chris returned to chopping garlic. Amber leaned one elbow on the counter. "Need any help?"

"No, I'm good." He replied, focused on not slicing a finger off. Amber continued to gaze at him. He impatiently pushed a lock of dark hair out of his eyes and deftly slid the chopped garlic off the board and into his palm. He turned around to grab a small bowl and butter. A hand snaked out of nowhere and covered Amber's mouth, and the other tightly restrained her, holding an athame against her chest. A scream bubbled in her throat but she contained it when a man's voice whispered faintly, so quietly that she could barely hear it over her panicked breathing.

"If you struggle or cry out, I'll kill your whitelighter."

Amber stopped breathing for fear of both the verbal threat and the knife edging against her throat. She stared at Chris, begging and praying he would turn around. It was times like this she wished she had telepathy for a power. He had to turn around and realize any second now that she was in danger. Shouldn't he be sensing a disturbance in the force? Every neuron in her brain was screaming.

Chris sensed a serious disturbance in Amber's thoughts and was instantly on guard. He whirled around. His expression shifted rapidly from concerned to enraged when he saw Xypher holding the athame to Amber's throat. His reaction was instantaneous. The knife on the table rose and flew at an impressive speed toward Xypher's face. Amber took a chance and grasped at the handle of the athame, struggling out of Xypher's grip as the warlock, completely not expecting the flying blade, blinked out just before the knife hit his face. The knife continued to fly through the air, burying itself into the wall past the hilt. Amber's face was ashen. The athame, still in her hands, clattered to the floor. She dropped to her knees on the floor, covering her face with her hands. Unsure of whether she would be bothered by him touching her but wanting to do something to comfort his terrified charge, Chris dropped to his knees and put his hands on her shoulders. He murmured vague reassurances, rubbing his thumbs against her shoulder blades.

The shock finally wore off and she stopped trembling. When she looked up from her hands, Chris was taken aback by the anger burning in her eyes. She abruptly stood up and he let his hands fall away. He looked up at her from where he was crouched on the floor.

"We're vanquishing him. Now." She told him. "I'm not going to wait for him to come after me. I'm tired of being afraid. This ends now." The tone in her voice suggested that arguing would be a really bad idea. Chris stood up. "We need to make some potions first. The last time I went after him to rescue you, he had a bunch of demons working for him." Chris reminded her. "I don't want to risk orbing in there and getting my ass kicked. Or yours."

It was a delay she didn't want, but it was a necessary one.

Amber finished stirring the potion. Chris began filling little vials with the lethal liquid and corking them.

"How are we even going to find him?" Amber questioned, pacing. She was itching to get after him and rid herself of him permanently.

"We're going to scry for him." He responded, corking a bottle.

"What kind? Aren't there different kinds of scrying?"

"We use the crystal to scry…we'll need that knife from the kitchen." He gestured with the hand holding the vial. He orbed out and back in with the knife in his other hand. He handed it to her. She held the knife carefully. "How do I do this?"

"Like this." He grabbed the scrying crystal and wrapped the chain around the knife blade. "Just swing it over the map and wait for it to land."

"That's all?" She did as she was told and sure enough, the crystal was drawn to a spot on the map. She peered closer at the map. "You _have_ to be kidding me."

"What? What is it?" Chris looked concerned. He looked down at the map and his expression soured. "Great. That's great. A graveyard."

Amber feigned brightness. "I can't think of a more appropriate place to vanquish his ass." And everything else, she added mentally.

Chris handed her a few potions. "Keep these. You're gonna need them."

He pocketed the rest and held out a hand. She didn't hesitate to take it.

They picked their way through underbrush and weaved through gravestones. They were just far enough away from the group of demons surrounding the lone figure—Xypher—that they weren't seen.

"When I say go—" Chris was cut off by Amber taking off at a run towards the demon. Swearing, he ran after her, pulling a couple of potion bottles out of his pocket. As soon as she was close enough, Amber threw a potion at Xypher. It smashed against his arm. It gave him pause where he forced himself to take the pain. Amber took a few steps back, horrified when he ignored the fact that his flesh was being eaten away by the potion.

Chris had nearly run into Amber, stopped just in time. He chucked a couple of vials, aiming for the demons on either side of Xypher. The demons burst into flames and the evening breeze carried the dust along with it. He lowered his head and muttered to Amber, "Next time, wait for me."

Amber had several points in mind to argue but she didn't have the time to voice them because the fireballs being hurled from every-which-way were far more or a priority to her at the moment. They missed and she and Chris each deflected a couple of them with telekinesis. Agonized screams of pain signaled the deaths of several more demons and fire was bright against the overcast night sky.

A choked sound jerked from Chris' throat. Amber heard, and whirled around to see him stagger back with both hands pressed to his side and fall. Then she saw the blackened arrow sticking out just below his ribcage. Her hand flew to her mouth but there was no muffling the horrified scream that tore from her. Her breathing halted. Not again. There was no way in hell that she would allow this to happen again. She'd promised herself that no more lives would be sacrificed because of her and she damn well wouldn't let Chris die.

A dark figure was silhouetted on the edge of her vision. She squinted through the darkness and was shocked at what she saw.

"You!" She hissed. The expression of utter hatred on her face would have terrified a wiser man. As it happened, she wasn't dealing with a man. The darklighter offered her a friendly smile.

"When I was offered the chance to go after your whitelighter… again… temptation was too great for me to resist."

She wanted to stay with Chris but she couldn't. She had to kill these bastards and get Chris home. Hadn't he said darklighter arrows were lethal? She bit back her panic and the intense hatred that had rushed through her when she saw the darklighter returned. She hurled two handed fireballs at the demon approaching behind her and turned back to the darklighter, gesturing sharply at him with her hands to blow him up at the same time he released an arrow on her. She missed the darklighter altogether and hit the ground to duck the arrow. She pulled herself to her knees and took the opportunity that he used to load the crossbow to heave a fireball at him. This time she didn't miss. The satisfaction that she felt when she heard his screaming was probably sick and twisted by most people's standards, but she couldn't find it in her to care.

She had one last adversary standing.

Xypher. The demented warlock seemed undisturbed by the deaths of his hired muscle. She gripped the athame that she had felt compelled to bring, even knowing that if the warlock got a hold of it again, he would be able to use it to take away her powers.

"If he dies, I swear I will track you down in hell and destroy you again." She gritted out. She didn't know how to vanquish him. Somehow he'd shrugged off the potions they had designed to wipe him out. At the same time, there was something she was wondering."

"You humans and your promises of vengeance." Xypher remarked loftily. "Pathetic, how you think you can stand against me."

"Funnily enough, I think I can. If I'm so pathetic, why didn't you take my powers when you had me chained to a wall in the Underworld? Why did you have me tortured to weaken me before you came near me?" She took a step towards him, and then another one, her finger rubbing unconsciously against the rough handle of the athame. She pulled her hand back and threw the athame as hard as she could towards him and prayed that her aim wouldn't be as off as it normally was. The warlock reached up and halted the dagger's flight with telekinesis and plucked it out of the air. He grinned and rushed her. Instead of running, she met him and struggled for the athame. She twisted his wrist causing him to automatically drop the athame that had yet to scar her skin. She dove for it, the rain that had begun to fall turning the dirt into mud that smeared across her side. Her hand gripped the handle once again and she spun around. Without considering her actions, she twisted the athame deep into his heart.

It was over.

The satisfaction of seeing the warlock disintegrate was wasted on her. Chris's death was a price she refused to pay for success. In her haste to get back to him, she tripped, and scrambled the last few feet. He was still breathing, but the breaths were coming too fast, like gasps for air, and he was shaking.

"Oh, please, not again. Not again." It was a mantra she couldn't seem to stop repeating over and over again. She reached out slowly and touched the back of his hand. This couldn't happen. It was her fault. She should have been more patient, should have planned the assault on the warlock more carefully. They could've taken precautions, anticipated that he might have a darklighter working for him. Should she take out the arrow or leave it there? She didn't know if taking it out would aggravate his injuries or speed the poison spreading through his body. He couldn't heal with an arrow grazing his ribs. Hands shaking, she broke the arrow as cleanly as she could and then yanked it out in one motion, jerking out a sharp gasp.

"Please, don't be dead." She pleaded, though she knew he couldn't possibly hear her. She swiped a hand impatiently at the tears that were insistently rolling down her cheeks, eloquently cursing the fact that healing was one of the only powers she _didn't_ have. She traced his jaw with her fingers. His skin was pallid and slick with sweat. "Please don't die." She spoke even knowing he couldn't hear her. There was no one in the world she thought was less deserving of death than Chris. Impulsively, she brushed her lips across his with the barest pressure.

She saw light in her peripheral vision through the hazy wetness around her eyes. Golden light was spreading from her hand. The hand curled over his side under the gash from the arrow. His chest heaved suddenly, dragging in air. The arrow wound was gone. Even the rip in the shirt where the arrow had gone through was gone as though it had never been there. He was healed. How?

She couldn't bring herself to care.

Chris was staring at her in shock and she had no idea why.

"How did…what just happened?" Chris finally managed. Amber blinked away at the tears that were still seeping out of the corners of her eyes. "I don't know."


	7. Chapter 7

_**Thanks so much for the reviews, everyone! I really appreciated everything you had to say. And trust me, there's a rhyme and reason to everything that happens. I think that right now we've reached a turning point in the story.**_

_**Chapter Six**_

Piper and Phoebe were both home and in the kitchen when Chris orbed in with Amber, dripping mud and rainwater all over the previously clean floor. They each took in the sight of the pair's soaked, ripped, and filthy clothing.

"Oh my God, what happened?" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Xypher." The curt response came from Chris. Amber's wet hair was plastered to the sides of her face from the rain. "He attacked. We went after him." she said.

"The son of a bi—" Chris was interrupted by a look of reproof from Piper. "He hired a darklighter."

Phoebe sucked in her breath. "What happened? You got hit didn't you? Oh God, Chris. What happened?"

"I'm okay." He assured them.

"How? Did Leo heal you?" Piper asked. Chris shook his head and looked at Amber questioningly. "Amber. What happened?"

Amber looked from face to curious face. Everyone was staring at her, all wanting to know what had happened. And she didn't know! She wrapped her arms around her body defensively.

"I don't know!" She blurted finally. "I didn't mean to!"

Piper's eyes went wide at the admission and Phoebe's hand went to her heart.

"Maybe Leo can figure this out. Leo?" Phoebe called. Leo orbed in. "What—?" He stopped as he took in the scene and his expression sobered. "What happened?"

"We don't know." Piper was looking at Amber with an expression bordering suspicion. "We were hoping you could help us figure it out."

Leo surveyed Chris and Amber's disheveled appearances. "Get changed into some dry clothes first. Then we'll talk about this."

In her room, Amber peeled off her drenched and muddy clothing. She reached for her towel draped over a chair. She needed a shower.

She stood under the hot spray for longer than necessary, prolonging the moment when she was going to need to explain things she didn't understand. She finally shut off the water and squeezed the water out of her hair. Standing there in her towel, she blow-dried and brushed her hair until it shone. She put on the thin cotton pajama pants and camisole that she preferred to wear to bed. She hesitated before going downstairs. How could she face them and try to explain something she couldn't even comprehend herself? She didn't know what had happened any better than anyone else.

There wasn't a choice. She scooped Jasper out of her blankets, ignoring his sleepy meow of protest. She went into the living room, where everyone else was already gathered. Every pair of eyes in the room followed her progress as she moved to a chair and sat down, settling the cat on her lap. She looked both angry and vulnerable, watching warily around the room. She shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny of everyone in the room.

"Amber, Chris." It was Leo who spoke. "Can one of you explain what happened?"

"I don't know." Amber uttered. "Chris got hit. I killed them." Her eyes darkened with the anger that the memories brought back. "I killed the rest of them."

Her tone softened. "I went back to Chris, and he was unconscious. I didn't know what to do!" Her voice cracked. "He told me once that darklighter arrows are poisonous to whitelighters. I didn't know what I could do about it." The remembered pain stabbed through her chest. She was particularly reluctant to say what happened next. Chris didn't know, and as far as she was concerned he never would. The emotional experience she'd gone through when she thought Chris might die was too intimate to share.

"So, what happened?" Paige asked quietly. She had come home in time to stand in silence and hear the story. The pain in Amber's chest increased. Phoebe covered her heart with her hand again, wincing. "Please don't make her tell it." She pleaded. "It hurts too much."

Shocked and hurt by the betrayal, Amber glared at Phoebe.

"I'm so sorry." Phoebe apologized sincerely. Amber took a moment to phrase what she wanted to say. "I was crying because I thought he was dead. I couldn't deal with the thought that it could happen again." She grimaced before clarifying, "That my whitelighter could die again. I saw a golden light start spreading over the wound. That's all. I don't know why or how it happened."

There. They didn't need to know anything else.

"You healed him?" Leo's voice was gentle but probing. She felt the shock of everyone in the room. "No!" She said sharply. "I mean, no, I can't—I don't _have_ a healing power."

"That's healing, hon." Phoebe informed her.

"Was your hand near the wound?" Leo wanted to know. He was looking at her speculatively.

"Yes." Amber answered, remembering.

"I don't know how, but you healed him." Leo appeared deep in thought. "Are you sure you can't copy whitelighter powers?"

"Positive. I've never been able to copy a whitelighter power." Amber's response was adamant.

"But that just doesn't make sense." said Phoebe. "If she can't copy whitelighter powers, how could she heal him?"  
"Maybe she's half whitelighter." Paige suggested.

"No, I'm not. And wouldn't I be able to orb or something if I was by some miracle, half whitelighter?" Amber pointed out, fiercely defensive of her parents.

"She's right." Leo agreed. "She hasn't shown any ability to use any other whitelighter powers. Besides, the Elders—that is, we—know that Amber's parents are her biological ones."

Paige looked a little let down that her theory was impossible. "I managed to slip through the cracks, isn't there at least a small chance that—"

"Paige, you were adopted. It's a completely different situation—"

Phoebe held her hand out palm up, worry twisting her features. "Guys, this still doesn't help us figure out what did happen. We already know that she's not half-whitelighter. What we need to do is figure out how this happened."

Leo gave a brief nod, the lines in his face deepening, and his mouth pulling down at the corner. "Exactly. Amber, are you sure there's nothing else you can tell us?"

Amber had been quiet. "No, but I'd really like to know why you're all treating this like it's a bad thing. I don't know why Chris is alive and sitting here right now instead of lying dead in that cemetery. I'm just glad that he is. If you don't need anything else from me, like my birth records or something, I'm going to bed."

Leo accepted the harsh words. She was tired, hurt, and upset. He let it go. "Of course, go ahead."

She was exhausted, after going through so much. And the mystery of the healing, she couldn't possibly know what that meant…

They watched Amber cross the floor and climb the stairs to her room. It occurred to Phoebe that it seemed that whenever Amber was feeling awful, she escaped to her room. She wanted badly to go upstairs and talk to Amber but after sensing those feelings, she knew very well that Amber needed to be alone.

"Are we done here?" Chris looked wary and guarded, his voice betraying his tiredness.

"We're done for now." Leo told him. Chris orbed out without another word.

Chris was sitting in the tops of the Golden Gate Bridge, his arms wrapped loosely around his knees when Leo showed up. Chris continued staring out in the night, looking past the lights of the city. He didn't seem to be staring at anything in particular. Just staring.

"What're you doing here, Leo?" His voice was flat with the barest current of emotion underneath.

"Came to see how you were doing." Leo answered carefully.

"What could possibly be wrong? I was hurt and I got healed. That's it." Chris still wasn't looking at him.

"If that was all, you wouldn't have assumed that I thought something was wrong." Leo slowly approached.

"Why else would you look for me?" Chris spared him a glance before turning his eyes back to the night.

"I was worried." Leo conceded. "Amber healing you is important. She accessed power she doesn't have to save you. I don't think you need me to tell you what that means."

Even if he hadn't known, he sure as hell could have guessed. "Thanks for the concern, but it's not necessary."

Leo gave him a hard look. "I think it is. I know this aloof attitude of yours is an act. I don't know why. Maybe you're using it to protect yourself, but it isn't you that you should be protecting. You'll hurt her, and as her whitelighter it's your job to both protect her and be honest with her."

"About what?" Chris sounded frustrated. "What am I not being honest about?"

"Your feelings, Chris. Your feelings."

"What feelings?" Chris burst out in anger. "Unlike you, I'm not looking to get with my charge, okay? I'm not like you."

"I'm not saying you are." It was hard for Leo not to take offense, but he plowed on anyway. "I'm saying you need to give her some sort of closure, or this will never be over for her. She has a right to know what you're feeling, or not feeling. Be fair, Chris." His speech delivered, Leo took one last look at Chris—who was looking off into the distance again—and orbed out, hoping that he'd managed to get through to him in some way.

Amber wished she could bolt the door behind her, but locking it would have to suffice. As if that would do any good if someone _really_ wanted to come in. She passed by the bed and curled herself into the corner. She felt like something inside her was slowly cracking open.

~~O~~

Phoebe knocked on the door for what felt like the thousandth time. "Amber, please let me in."

No answer. She tried again. "You can't stay in there forever, you know." More silence. Paige, who was passing by, stopped to ask disbelievingly, "Is she _still_ in there? What's it been, two days? She's gotta come out sometime."

"Apparently she doesn't think so." Phoebe dropped her hand from the door and faced her sister. "I don't know what to do. She won't let anyone in, but she can't just sit in there and stew."

"I have a great solution for this." Paige offered her hand. Phoebe looked undecided. "We can't just orb in there. It's her room. It would be an invasion of privacy."

"Oh, come on. You said it yourself, she can't stay in there forever and if someone doesn't do something, she'll never come out."

Paige reached for her hand. Phoebe hesitated. "Come on," Paige insisted. Phoebe gave in and they orbed into the room, unsure of what to anticipate. Amber was standing at the window, looking out toward the sun, unblinking.

"Hey kiddo. How are you feeling?" Phoebe's voice was deliberately upbeat. It didn't help.

"No offense Phoebe, but if I'd wanted to talk, I would have opened the door."

Phoebe's false cheerfulness died. She sat on the end of the bed. "I'm sorry. I was just so worried about you." She could sense the turbulence of Amber's emotions and knew to step carefully with her.

"Why?" Amber feigned ignorance. She knew there wasn't a point, but she'd rather try to play dumb then talk about her feelings right now. She knew that's why Phoebe wanted to talk to her. Paige moved forward. "Why? You lock yourself in your room for days and wonder why we're concerned? It seems pretty obvious that you're going through some serious turmoil. You need to talk."

"It was _two_ days. I needed time. I'm dealing with a lot right now, okay?"  
"Yeah, I get that, but—" Phoebe interrupted Paige before Amber got upset. "Paige, we're up here to help her feel better, not worse."

"Sorry." Paige said under her breath. Phoebe took up the conversation where Paige left off. "Paige is right, though. We're all worried about you. This healing situation, it's a really big thing. You healed Chris and that's a great thing, but you shouldn't be able to use that kind of magic." Even when Amber opened her mouth to protest, Phoebe plowed on, "What I think you should know is that the, um, trigger-thingy for the healing power is—"

"Wait, she doesn't need to know that." Paige objected.

"Yes, she does." Phoebe argued. "She has a right." Again she plowed on. "It's love, Amber."

Amber's eyes opened wide, and she inhaled sharply. "I don't…"

Phoebe nodded. "On some level you do. Honey, it might be painful, but you have to feel that. Trust me, in our world, suppressing emotions tends to have consequences."

"Yeah, that's for sure." Paige affirmed.

"I'm not suppressing anything." But arguments were futile. She knew they were right. Bottling up emotions was bad for normal people. It must be lethal for someone like her.

"Just give me some time to myself. I'm not ready to go out there yet. I need more time to think. By myself." She eyed them meaningfully.

"Okay, okay. We're leaving." Phoebe already had a plan in mind. As she walked out of the room, she felt hope bubble up beneath the surface, and she wasn't sure whether it was Amber's or her own. She just knew that she wanted a word with her favorite time-traveling nephew.

~~O~~

Chris had finally come to a conclusion. A temporary one, but that's all he needed until he figured things out. He was hardly expecting his aunt to be waiting in the sunroom to pounce on him before the orbs faded. "Where have you been?"

"Thinking. Why does it matter?"

"Why would you do this?" Phoebe demanded. "She's a person, Chris. I don't know what you're going through, but it can't be as anywhere near as bad as what she's going through. You have the answers that she needs.

He snorted incredulously. "_I_ have the answers?"

"In case you didn't notice, her feelings are out on the table and you're just off doing your own thing." Phoebe accused.

He gave a startled laugh. "Wait, what? I'm off doing my own thing? You don't know where I've been, or why."

Phoebe's voice was quieter this time. "I just know that she's hurting, and you're the only one who can help. You owe her that much, don't you think?"

Phoebe paused. "You need to tell her how you feel so that she can move on with her life. She hasn't left her room since this happened."

This was infuriating. Couldn't he have some semblance of privacy without the whole damn family interfering? "I don't—I can't answer that! I'm just trying to do a job I didn't ask for! That's it. I don't want my family interfering in my personal life. _My_ charge is _my_ business, so if you guys would all just butt out, I'd be a lot happier."

Phoebe stood her ground. "No offense, Chris, but it's not really your happiness I'm concerned about right now. Do your thinking. But when you come up with an answer, you'd better be back here and giving that girl an explanation."

He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Fine. I need you, Paige, and Piper to trade off helping her with her training until I get back. I need to think about this."

"You can't expect us to—" He was already gone.

Phoebe gritted her teeth in frustration. He'd better think hard about it. She took herself off to go mutter over a cup of tea and her half finished column.

~~O~~

Amber was walking towards the upstairs bathroom with a clean towel and fresh clothes thrown over one arm when she heard raised voices downstairs. She paused and listened. She flinched when she recognized the voices. Chris and Phoebe. She held her breath as she listened to Phoebe say, "You need to tell her how you feel so she can move on with her life. She hasn't left her room since this happened." She waited with bated breath for the response, not entirely sure she wanted to hear it. Oh, but she heard it alright. His voice rose angrily. "I don't—I can't answer that! I'm just trying to do a job I didn't ask for!" That was all she needed to hear. She walked quickly to the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She put down the towel and garments and turned the hot water on and stepped in. The scalding droplets of water stung her skin and she turned the cold on just enough that the water was tolerable. When she was scrubbed clean, she got to her knees on the shower floor and closed her eyes, feeling the water pour down on her like hot rain, running down her face and dripping from her nose and chin like tears. If she cried now, no one would know. She leaned forward so that her forehead touched the shower floor, letting the water beat against her back until her skin was sore and pink from the heat and pounding of the water. She turned off the water and reached for her towel. Her movements were completely automatic. She had numbed her thoughts off so she couldn't think, didn't have to think. She dressed and toweled off her hair thoroughly, brushing out the tangles. It wasn't so easy in life. Brushing out the tangles, it never quite happened that way. Things didn't always end up straight and neat like they were supposed to. There were still waves and little knots that didn't get worked out.

In her bedroom, she simply dropped the towel to the floor, uncaring, and went back to her comfortable corner and sank down, letting her emotions overwhelm her. She let her hair fall forward to curtain her off. She hadn't expected anything. Of course she hadn't. She couldn't have—she rarely felt any form of emotion from him. He was so carefully guarded… but she'd never thought she'd be a victim of it. She hated him passionately in that moment but it fell apart. She couldn't even hate him properly. Her fist clenched and crushed together, nails biting painfully into her palm, but the pain was distant. She jerked her fist to the side, and her bedside lamp flew into the wall and shattered.

Piper was sitting in her own room, wondering if she should speak to Amber. After what Phoebe had told her, she felt like she should. She understood Amber's troubles all too well. Maybe her experience could help Amber through what was hurting her now. She took the steps to reach Amber's door. She tapped slightly then tried the handle. It was unlocked. She pushed the door open slowly. "Amber? Can I talk to you?"

Amber was curled in a tight ball in the corner, shrouded by the curtain of hair that she'd dipped her face behind. Piper moved into the room, avoiding the shattered pieces of glass from the broken lamp and sat down in front of Amber.

Amber looked up. Her face was mottled with color and her cheeks were stained with tears. "I don't know what to do anymore."

"I know. I know how you feel." There was something so honest and gentle in the way Piper spoke that instead of protesting that no, no one could possibly understand how she was feeling, Amber waited to see if Piper would say anything else.

"I married my whitelighter, you know." The faintest of smiles curved Piper's lips. "It's hard. I have to tell you, it's the hardest thing I've ever done. He was always getting called off to do something or other. I had to do _so_ much by myself. Worry that one day they'd take him back for good. But Chris, he's not like that, he's only half. You wouldn't have to worry about him getting called away all the time."

"It doesn't matter." Amber's said sardonically. "He doesn't want me. He made that clear from the beginning that all he wanted was a professional relationship. I never expected more than that." She asserted. "I just wanted to be able to keep it to myself, but I can't even have that much. Everyone knows."

"I know. But you can't escape by staying in here all the time. During the times when Leo was taken from me… I cried. I screamed at the sky. I tried to force them to bring him back to me and when I didn't get an answer, I tried to escape any way I could." She smiled wryly at a memory that Amber could only guess at. Piper shook her head. "It won't make it any better. You know that it's against the rules for a whitelighter to have a relationship with their charge?"

Amber sucked in a sharp, painful breath. "I didn't know." Revelation. More pain. She tried not to wonder if that was why he stressed the platonic relationship so hard and if it would make her feel any better if it was. Piper got to her feet. "He's not here anymore. We're supposed to take over your training for awhile."

Amber was stunned by the onslaught of hurt. He needed to get away from her so badly that he'd turned her over to the Charmed Ones? Was it that bad? Was it so bad of a thing that he needed to run off with no warning? Just the same. She shoved the pain away so it lingered beneath the surface but she forced her face to become expressionless. Phoebe and Piper were both right. She couldn't hide in her room for the rest of her life.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Don't worry, Chris can't stay away for long- duty calls. This chapter was so much fun to write so I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys think of it.**_

_**Chapter Seven**_

Piper was right. Chris was gone. Amber continued working on learning spells and potions and kept her attitude as breezy and normal as possible, but she could still feel the sympathy radiating from the people around her. That hurt more than anything else. She spent a lot of time at P3 and those who didn't know what she was going through probably thought she was happy. She helped out there during the day after her lessons in witchcraft, and danced there at night—she'd discovered that dancing provided an escape from conscious thought. It was one such night that the pattern broke. She lost herself completely to the music. She lost herself in the pack of people all writhing and dancing. Eyes closed, she let her waist and hips roll to the beat of the music, stretching her arms over her head and letting the music take over. She opened her eyes and saw one of the most striking men she'd ever seen sitting on a bar stool, staring intently at her. She opted to ignore him, choosing instead to close her eyes again and continue dancing. When she opened her eyes next, he was weaving his way through the crowd of undulating bodies, through the crowd of laughing, dancing people. The lights glinted oddly off his hair, tinting it silvery so that she couldn't tell whether his hair was a light brown or blonde.

His movements toward her were deliberate and graceful, predatory. It should have tipped her off that something wasn't quite right, but she'd had a couple of drinks and she didn't care anymore. He reached her and bent down to speak to her in a low, compelling voice, "Dance with me." It was more of a command than a request and he held out a hand. She took it, unable to resist him. His eyes entranced her even more than the low, purring voice. His eyes were a captivating gold-green, the pupils a little too large. She couldn't bring her eyes away, his were far too mesmerizing. He was a graceful dancer, well, that was hardly a surprise, and every movement he made was perfectly precise as though each individual motion had been mapped mentally before execution. When the song was over, he slipped past her, just barely brushing her in passing. The scent that wafted back to her as he passed by was so intoxicating that her lips parted slightly in response. Several women stopped in the middle of what they were doing simply to gape at him. Amber was still staring after him, and she didn't realize until she'd brushed past several people that she was following him. The realization didn't stop her and she followed him all the way outside. The night air outside was cool against her heated skin. She saw that he was now leaning against a car—_her_ car. Waiting for her. And yet somehow, the thought that he knew which car was hers and was waiting there for her to approach him didn't scare her. Not that it wasn't weird, of course, but somehow… it didn't freak her out as much as it should have. She reached him and saw in the improved lighting that his hair was a very light shade of blonde, one of the lightest she'd ever seen, and his skin was pale and golden in the moonlight. His pale skin and hair were even more striking against his clothing—an untucked black button-up shirt, with the first couple buttons undone, over well fitted denim jeans. He straightened and leaned close to her, and spoke in his low voice, "I have an offer you can't refuse—an opportunity..." She couldn't help but inhale the rich scent coming in waves from his skin, what was that? His voice was compelling and unlike any other she had heard, smooth with a rough edge to it. He gripped her shoulder, pulling her towards him and pressing his lips to hers in a highly invasive kiss, his tongue sliding past her lips, coarser than it should be. She thought she should fight him off or something, but his claws ripped through her shirt and she felt them tear her skin open. She fell back against the car. Needles of pain shot through her shoulder where he had slid his claws into her skin and she slid down, the tiny pebbles on the hard pavement biting into her flesh. Her eyes closed, and a strange numbness overtook her. She was unaware of anything at all for a time.

~~O~~

Amber's eyes snapped open. She felt the rush of the blood pumping through her veins. She felt more alive than ever. She pulled herself into a sitting position. She saw that she was on the ground behind her car in the otherwise almost empty parking lot of P3. For the life of her, she couldn't remember how she'd gotten there. Oh, that's right. That guy. The gorgeous guy she'd followed here. Her mouth watered. She stood in one fluid motion and moved with the same sensual feeling she gave her dancing, one side of her mouth lifted in what was almost a leer, back into P3. The club was deserted now and Piper was sitting at the bar by herself, poring over some papers. Amber caught the most enticing scent she'd ever smelled and inhaled deeply several times.

Piper felt the disturbing sensation of eyes staring intently at her. Amber was standing in the middle of the room. "Oh, hi, Amber. Everything's taken care of, you can go…home…" she trailed off, seeing the predatory expression on Amber's face. Amber's eyes glinted gold, and her pupils were slits. "Oh, my God." Piper realized that something must have happened. Amber wasn't human anymore. Amber's glare intensified. She curled her lip back from elongated canines in a horrific snarl. Then she stalked off, lifting her face to sniff the air. Piper took a deep breath. For whatever reason, Amber hadn't attacked her. She followed Amber as quietly as she could.

Amber snarled at Piper, not recognizing her. It was _her_ scent, hers to track, hers to… she sighed longingly. Whoever it belonged to was _hers. _No one else could have him, _no one_.She bared her extremely sharp new teeth and lifted her nose, inhaling deeply to drink in the scent and memorize it. She heard the footsteps behind her clearly and really didn't care. She cared far more about the intriguing scent that she was tracking. It grew stronger with ever step she took. She followed her nose into a small room and looked around. It was plastered with band promos. There was a couch made up for a bed. The scent was strongest here. She heard a suspicious clicking noise and swung around. The door was shut now. She jerked the handle, trying to open it, but it was shut tight. Something was obstructing the door.

Piper made sure that the chair was shoved securely under the door handle. Satisfied that Amber was shut in, she hurried out the door, grabbing her purse of the bar. She knew that the chair wouldn't hold Amber in for long. First thing when she got to the Manor, she tossed her purse on the couch, and rushed up to the attic, calling out her sisters' names as she did. The bewildered and concerned Phoebe and Paige joined her by the book, which Piper was flipping through anxiously. "What's wrong, Piper?" Phoebe asked. "Amber." Piper found a picture of a that seemed to be blurred somewhere between feline and human. "This. A werecat. She's a werecat."

"_What?"_ Phoebe and Paige blurted out at the same time. "How did this happen?" Paige asked.

Piper gestured agitatedly. "I have no idea, she was in the club, but she must have left because she came back in right after closing."

"Can she be turned back?" Phoebe asked, peering at the page on werecats.

"Yeah, but we have to give her this potion before she turns someone else into a werecat."

"Well, where is she?" Paige asked, wondering.

"Still at P3, I trapped her in a room…" Piper trailed off, still reading the page.

"Then that shouldn't be a problem." Paige pointed out.

"Uh, oh." Piper pointed at the book. "Yes, it is."

Paige and Phoebe read what she was pointing at. "Werecats are highly sexually oriented... I don't get how that's a problem." Paige said.

Phoebe did. "If she gets out of the room…"

"She'll go after a guy to turn him." Piper said logically.

Amber gave the sheets and pillow on the couch a delicate sniff. They were completely saturated with the intoxicating scent that had led her here. She was angry. The scent was driving her utterly mad and she was shut in this empty room. This was hell on earth. She rammed her shoulder against the door, the wall shook. She stepped back and kicked out right by the doorknob. She repeated this several times, until there was a splintering, cracking noise, and the door opened. The chair that had been shoved under the handle was broken, and the knob wasn't in great shape. She slipped out of the room and out of P3, into the night. She shifted into a large cat, shaded with copper and mahogany. She surveyed the area. Finding no threats, she padded off, melting into the night.

~~O~~

So, she's going to find a guy to turn into a werecat." Paige stated the problem.

"Yeah, the question is who…?" Phoebe finished.

Chris orbed in, "Hey, is there a problem or something? There's a—" He broke off, seeing that all three of their mouths had fallen open and they were staring at him. "What?"

~~O~~

"What do you mean she's been turned into a werecat?" Chris exclaimed. "I was gone for how long? And of course, something bad happened."

"You shouldn't have left in the first place." Phoebe glared daggers at Chris. He ignored this, instead returning to the problem at hand. "How did this happen?"

"I don't know." Piper was the one to answer. "She just came into P3. And I locked her in…Oh, crap, Chris, I shut her in your room. You shouldn't go there until we get this sorted out."

"I was just there, no one's in there. But the room is messed up, and there's a broken chair outside the door."

"Dammit! She got out." Piper pushed her long hair back out of her way as she plotted damage control. "We have to find her. Just… be careful, okay Chris?"

His brow furrowed. "Okay." It sounded more like a question. He orbed out, and Piper turned toward her sisters. "Let's get to making that potion." She made a motion with her hands toward the book.

Chris tried to track down Amber, but now that she wasn't a witch any more he couldn't track her signals. He orbed back to living room of the manor. The room was dimly lit and he took a step, his foot crunching glass. He looked down, lifting his foot and saw shards of glass resting in a small pool of liquid. He crossed the room to the stairs and paused. Something wasn't right. Turned around. Amber was standing a few feet away. Her eyes flashed gold at him. She moved toward him, her gait slow and deliberately sensuous. She reached him and again, slowly and deliberately reached for him. His eyes widened as she grazed her hand lightly across his side and ran her hand lightly up his back, and back down, using the barest pressure of her curved nails, just enough to shred the back of his shirt but not break the skin. She simultaneously reached out with her other hand and curved one claw at the top of his shirt. She slowly dragged her claw down, shredding his shirt. And down. "Whoa, Amber, what are you doing?" He yelped when her claw slid down past the button on his jeans. She completely ignored his protest. He orbed out immediately up into the attic. He pointed down to the floor, indicating where he'd just been. "Okay, what the hell was that?"

Phoebe smothered a giggle and Piper and Paige merely stared at him with amused smirks. His shirt was shredded, and he was gripping his jeans with one hand to hold them up. "Wo-ow," Paige drew the word out. "She really did a number on you." Phoebe snorted.

"She didn't scratch you right?" Piper asked, covering her mouth.

"No, I don't think so. Is _that_ why you said not to go near her?"

"That'd be it." Piper replied.

"We've tried to give her the potion. We even had Leo give it a shot. But she's beaten us every time." Paige informed him. Piper had a revelation. "Hey, I have an idea…" she said slowly, looking at Chris. Paige and Phoebe followed her gaze. It took him a minute. "Oh, no. No way."

He started shaking his head. "There's no way I'm going to…."

Amber was prowling around downstairs, edgy and restless. She paused when she smelled Chris' scent again. Her gaze followed through to where the scent floated from. He was walking down the stairs. She sauntered toward him. "I knew you'd come back." A satisfied smile curved her lips up. His eyebrow arched in an almost playful manner in response, playing to her intent. She reached him and, apparently through with playing her game, curled her fingers into his belt loops and pulled him toward her. He bent and kissed her. Her lips automatically parted. As soon as she tasted the acrid liquid that filled her mouth, she tried to twist out of his grasp, but it was he that wouldn't let go until she'd swallowed the potion. Chris straightened and backed away, licking his lips. Amber sputtered and looked disgusted. She shook herself off. He watched her sharp white claws shrink into normal fingernails and her eyes shift from golden to their normal shade of dark blue. She took a minute to gather herself and when she looked at him next, she appeared utterly mortified. "Oh, shit." She swore. "I am so sorry." Her eyes were wide and genuinely apologetic. "I didn't mean to do that. I wasn't myself."

"It's no big deal. Happens to everyone." Chris looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Right. I've been hearing that a lot lately." Amber's expression turned cynical. She turned and hurried out the door, not daring to look behind her. She wasn't sure whether to be mad or not when the sisters filed out the door to join her on the steps leading up to the front door. Paige flopped down on one side of her, Phoebe took the other, and Piper huffed a little bit about it as she got down—she was very pregnant—finally settling with a bit of a grunt. Amber felt an arm drape over her shoulders and looked over at Phoebe, who squeezed her gently in a one armed hug. She couldn't quite manage to muster a smile. But she felt comfortable finally, allowed herself to relax, and let the weariness and pain show on her face. She felt reassured that the sisters had cared enough—that _someone_ had cared enough to worry about her. "I'm so tired." She said quietly. "I'm just tired of fighting, that's all. It gets that way sometimes. I'll be fine in a minute."

"I know." Piper's voice echoed the sentiment. "It's really hard to be strong all the time. We've all been through it. Being hurt by the one you love, it makes you vulnerable to attacks from wendigos."

"And banshees." Phoebe scratched her head.

"And becoming the Queen of all Evil." Paige shot at Phoebe.

"Oh, come on, you still haven't gotten over that? That was _two_ _years_ ago!"

Amber smiled faintly at their banter.

"Oh, and then there was the time I turned into a mermaid." Phoebe admitted.

"Valkyrie." Piper recalled a little reluctantly, and dropped it back onto her lap.

"And these were all things you turned into because…" God, she couldn't say it.

"Yeah." Phoebe returned to being serious. "We got turned into them because we loved someone. Someone we couldn't have."

"I guess I shouldn't ask who." Amber looked down. She didn't want to bring up their painful memories. She already knew some of Piper's story. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me. Thanks for coming out here."

Phoebe gave her a squeeze-hug again. "Hey, you're like our little sister now. We have to make sure you're okay too."

Amber gave another little smile. "I appreciate it." She tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. She fought the tears that wanted to come and won. Her eyes stayed dry.

_**I don't know if everyone knows, but it's Drew Fuller's birthday today, so I uploaded a tribute video in honor of his birthday. You can view it on Youtube by putting in the key words "Drew Fuller Birthday Tribute 2012" and the account name is Tigress01. I also have a bunch of Chris videos on that account, so if you want, check them out and let me know what you think.**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter Eight**_

Darryl shifted impatiently from foot to foot, listening to the ringing, praying to God that one of the girls would pick up. He made himself check the details of the murder again, grimacing at the sight when his eyes fell on the body, or at least what was left of it. There was no way this wasn't one of their supernatural thingies. Well, he'd be damned if he wanted a part in this, but he had no choice, this was what he did. Damn, when he got into this business, he was not expecting all this creepy shit to come out. The phone picked up, and he heard a female voice say, "Hello?"

"Hey, Paige, this is Darryl. I've- I've got a bad case here. Real bad." He shot a glance at the body again and made another disgusted face.

"Um. This is Amber."

"Oh." Darryl mumbled. He checked the number. Yeah, that was the right number.

"I can get Paige for you if you want." Amber offered.

"Uh, sure. That'd be great." Darryl said, still a little confused. There was a murmur of voices and it was definitely Paige's this time. He recognized her determined, do-good voice.

"Hi, Darryl, what's going on?"

"We've got a freaky case. Victim looks as though she was flayed alive. Might want to check it out." He gave her the address and repeated it for her while she jotted it down.

"We'll be right there."

Paige and Amber orbed in discreetly and Paige peered to both sides before going to Darryl, who didn't even flinch. He'd actually started getting used to her popping out of nowhere. Now _that_ was freaky. Paige's face twisted in horror when she saw the victim's body lying where it had been discovered that morning. "Oh my _God_, what happened to him? Or her. Do you even _know_?"

"Uh, we think it's a female. No telling how old she is or what she looked like before this," He jerked his head toward the body. "No ID anywhere—we searched the whole place. Even her suitcase is gone."

Amber looked around the hotel room and saw that was true. Nothing personal remained here. "What if it's a case of identity theft?"

Darryl said, "Huh?" at the same time that Paige shot Amber an amazed look. The light bulb that went off in her head was almost visible.

"Think about it." Amber continued, warming to the topic "All her stuff is gone, and her skin was removed too. It sounds like the most effective form of identity theft I've ever heard of."

"Yeah, the question is finding out who we're after." Paige pointed out. Darryl shook his head. "Dunno if this is going to help, but this is a part of a string of murders, a whole bunch just like it. Difference is, most of the others were found at home and man, were they rich."

"A demon that attacks high society. Why?" Paige thought aloud. Amber had an answer. "Identity theft, remember? If you're going to steal someone's identity, wouldn't you want to be rich and, well, probably attractive, but I don't know if the demon goes that far."

Paige was nodding. "Let's check the Book of Shadows. Maybe there's something in there about," She took one last glance at the body and shuddered. "Flaying."

"You can check the Book of Shadows, missy, since you're still learning how to do this stuff." Paige informed Amber. Amber rolled her eyes, but didn't object. She didn't mind, she'd always wanted to do this stuff, but it hadn't really come up, so she'd just watched. She opened the book, and flipped through the pages. She found herself fascinated by the illustrations and the information about each creature, and read avidly on each one.

"I don't think an ogre is flaying people alive."

Amber flinched and grinned a little sheepishly at Paige. "Sorry. Guess I got distracted."

"Yes, it _is_ interesting isn't it?" Paige said enthusiastically. "I used to read up on some of those things for fun, and it's really very fascinating."

"Yeah!" Amber's eyes lit up. "But I guess I have to do that later." She shifted swiftly from being excited to rueful. She flipped through a few more pages. "Hey, this looks like the victim!" Amber exclaimed in shock. She bent over to read the information. "Paige, this is it!" She began to read out loud "A Soul Sucker is a creature that creeps into their victim's room while they sleep, crouching over them and sucking out all their air, effectively stealing their souls, hence their name. They do not have skin therefore must steal the skin of others and wear it as their own until it deteriorates and they must steal another one."

Paige made another face. "Attractive."

Amber nodded in agreement. "That pretty much sums it up. The problem is we can't scry for it. So we're going have to do this the old fashioned way.

"We're going to have to find places that a bunch of rich people hang out." Paige stated.

Amber dropped her hands to her lap. "That would be how to find the killer, I mean, he's got to be scoping for rich victims somewhere, so look for a rich people convention."

Paige gave a nod. "Right, so I, will go get my sisters and see if we can figure out what we're gonna do."

"Okay. I'll work on the potion." Amber replied, grabbing the book.

"No, you won't." Paige stopped her dead. "The last potion you made blew up, and let me tell you, singed," She flicked at her clothes. "_Not_ my style."

"I apologized for that." Amber reminded her. Paige rolled her eyes. "Whatever. That wasn't my point. My point is that _you_ are dangerous in the kitchen. No working on potions by yourself." She ordered. "At least wait until I get back."

"Fine." Amber agreed reluctantly. If she didn't practice, how was she supposed to get better. Okay, so maybe she should have been paying more attention, but how was she supposed to know to wait two minutes before adding the mandrake root? Sheesh. She put the book back, leaving it open to the page about Soul Suckers. She wandered down into the kitchen, not really sure what to do with herself. She was the only one home, she wasn't allowed to work on potions, she didn't exactly have any hobbies anymore, what was a girl to do? There was a pile of mail on the counter, and she sifted idly through it. She half expected to see mail addressed to her, though she didn't really get a whole lot of mail, and never here. She used to orb over to her house to pick up her mail, well, actually Chris used to orb her, but seeing as he'd disappeared off the face of the planet…She gritted her teeth in a moment of anger. She spent most of her time feeling either angry, hurt, or sad, maybe even a little let down. Cool powers or not, she was really bad at this whole magic thing. She'd killed her last whitelighter, and she wasn't doing so great with this one either. She gave a sigh. Or maybe it wasn't magic she sucked at, it was relationships. She wasn't really good with people. A grimace. At least not with whitelighters. She almost wished she hadn't agreed to take Chris on as a whitelighter in the first place. But she knew she would have been stuck right back where she'd started. Miserable. Not that this was a whole lot better, really. But at least something was happening. She'd always wished something interesting would happen to her. So that's why they always said be careful what you wish for. Huh. She finally noticed the piece of paper she was holding her hand was a flyer, slightly bent. She smoothed it out and read the bold letters proclaiming the charity ball on Saturday evening—tomorrow—requesting donations. Wasn't this like, the hundredth flyer she'd seen? It hit her like a ton of bricks to the head. This was the event she'd been looking for. What better place to find a whole bunch of rich people than a _charity ball_? It was like a freaking _buffet_ for the Soul Sucker. She read the flyer thoroughly. It was by invitation. Shit. That's great. Unless…she wondered if Darryl had gotten invited. It seemed logical, to her at least. If they knew about the string of high society murders, they would probably have the police keeping an eye out for something suspicious. That would get at least one of them in, and if Paige could orb the other two, no one would be the wiser. Once you got in, you were in, right? They only checked for invitations at the door. She put the flyer down, wondering when Paige would be back with Phoebe and Piper.

She supposed it wasn't a long wait, but she was so anxious that she spent the wait pacing and thinking, and growling impatiently, an odd habit of hers, that only came out when she was extremely anxious. So when she heard the door open and the sisters chatting as they shuffled in through the door, she hurried to greet them, thrilled that they were back. "Paige, did you fill them in?" She asked.

"On everything." Paige assured her.

"I have a new theory." Amber informed them. "See this?" She brandished the paper.

"Oh, yeah, the charity ball they posted flyers for everywhere." Piper commented.

"Yes. That's where the Soul Sucker is going. It's going to go and scope the place for its next victim." Amber told them. If she sounded more enthusiastic than the occasion warranted, it was because she was thrilled at having figured it out. She took a deep breath before explaining her theory about the charity ball having police officers invited to keep an eye on things, and asked, "Do you think Darryl might have gotten an invitation?"  
"It's worth a shot." Paige said, pulling out her cell phone. She dialed and they waited. In spite of the fact that they were hearing only one end of the conversation, they got the gist of it, which was that Darryl had in fact gotten invited. Paige snapped the phone shut and put it back.

"So, he can bring one of us as a guest, right? Like a date, only not." Amber said. "And Paige can orb the other two."

"Hey, that's a pretty good plan." Piper sounded almost surprised.

"Yeah, you're really getting the hang of this." Paige remarked.

"Thanks." Amber's responding smile was a little brighter, a little more genuine than had been usual.

"I think we should try to blend in." Phoebe tossed in her thoughts. "If we're going to go and try to find this Soul Sucker thing, we're going to want to blend."

"Yeah, we don't want to stand out too much." Piper agreed. Paige looked somewhat disappointed. Standing out was her specialty.

Amber had another idea. A devious plan. She couldn't tell this one to the sisters, she didn't think. At least not yet. Piper pointed her finger at Amber and said, "You are helping me with the potion tomorrow. Don't blow anything up."

Amber rolled her eyes. "That was one time! Give me a break." She sounded annoyed, though she was smiling when she said it. She then left, climbing the stairs to go to her room.

She rolled onto the bed on her stomach, and propped her chin, thinking about what to do. She was still restless and anxious, wanting to get this done. She also felt this really weird need to talk to Chris who, again, hadn't exactly been around. She didn't have a whole lot to say to him either. Okay, so she had a lot to say, just nothing she was actually _going_ to say. She wasn't entirely sure she could summon him, anyway. She'd heard the sisters call for Leo at various times, and in varying ways. She'd asked Piper about that once and Piper had explained that it was because Leo was their whitelighter, he could hear them calling and would orb to them. And Chris had told her that if she needed him there all she had to do was say his name. Then again, that was when they were on good terms. He might not even show up under the more recent circumstances. Did he have a choice in the matter? Or was he just whisked off? She really had no idea. Moreover, did she have to yell it, or just say it? Piper usually yelled. But then again, that was just how Piper was. Amber didn't really want anyone to hear her, especially if it didn't work. She didn't want them to hear her calling for him, just because…well, she just didn't. It was her business, and she liked to keep her business private, which she'd noticed was extremely difficult in this household. The curiosity was eating at her and she couldn't resist giving it a try. Her first attempt was tentative. "Chris?" She waited a minute with bated breath, not sure what to expect. Nothing. She narrowed her eyes speculatively and tried again, this time a little louder. Still, nothing. Dammit. She didn't know whether that meant it didn't work for her, or whether he was just being a pain in the ass. She took a deep breath, and dared. "Chris, get in here _now_." She yelled. Piper's approach. This time it worked. She jumped a foot in the air when Chris orbed in. His expression was unreadable. "You didn't need to yell."

Amber looked up at him. "You didn't show up the first two times."

His eyes flicked toward the door. "What do you need?"

Something. Anything. Anything but this cold tension. _It's not my fault!_ she wanted to shriek. It wasn't her fault that they'd sent her the most irresistible whitelighter they had to coax her back to take on her birthright. She shot a sudden, suspicious look at him. Had that been his intention all along? No. She saw that immediately in the tightness of his jaw, the determination that rolled off of him in perceptible waves. The wall again. Held against what? Her? The hurt flooded through her and she turned her face away for a moment to blink away the moisture in her eyes.

Chris wanted nothing more than to leave. Didn't she have a _reason_ for calling him here? He was itching to leave—he hadn't wanted to come here in the first place, but he couldn't ignore her when she called. He was torn between desires and responsibilities.

However, there were enough reasons not to ignore her for him to stay. He saw that she was looking away from him, and he felt a stab of frustration. Was she going to say something or just ignore him? "You did have something to say right?" He asked impatiently.

Amber steeled herself against the hurt she'd felt at the impression she'd gathered from his body language and the tone of his voice. She could feel his frustration—damn that empathic ability—and she knew that she both had to answer and that she had to get over this ridiculous feeling. What she really needed was to get over the hurt. It wasn't going away. It was a stupid feeling anyway. She shouldn't bother. She shouldn't let herself be weak enough to feel the pain, anyway. So she controlled her voice to sound normal, casual even, when she answered his question. "Yeah, I just thought you, being my whitelighter," She couldn't help but emphasize the title, "Would want to know what I'm… what _we're_ doing tomorrow."

"What are you doing tomorrow?" He sounded almost concerned, which was totally at odds with the rest of his attitude.

"We're going to the charity ball tomorrow, to search for a Soul Sucker." Amber informed him, keeping her voice carefully light. "It makes a career out of stealing the identities of rich people, so we're going to look for it."

"Good luck." He said half heartedly. He had a grating feeling he should be there—she'd never had a magical mission without him before.

"I had an idea." She said slowly. She probably shouldn't tell this to him either, but seeing as he didn't seem to really care, she figured she was safe. Besides, he was so intent on avoiding her, it's not like he could stop her. "The sisters thought it would be a good idea to go in understated clothing so we wouldn't call attention to ourselves."

Chris gave a nod. "Sounds reasonable." His tone was curt. Amber managed to keep a rein on her annoyance. "I had an even better idea. But I can't tell them, because if I do, they won't let me."

Chris was suddenly intent on her words. This was definitely something he needed to know. If she was going to do something stupid. And if he knew Amber as well as he thought he did, it was going to be stupid. And dangerous. And probably perfect… if she were anyone but his charge.

Amber was startled when he gave her his full focus with those intense green eyes. He'd been looking off into the other direction until she'd said this. Well, damn. At least she'd gotten some sort of reaction. That _could_ be a bad thing at this exact moment, though. She plowed through with her idea anyway. "If I try to stand out, it might attract the Soul Sucker's attention and if he goes after me, then I have the potion. We're all going to have potions, so it'll make it way easier to find him."

Chris stared at her. Okay, he'd had a feeling she was planning something stupid, but this was ridiculous. And it would work. But that wasn't the point. She would get hurt. There was no way he could let her go through with this. "No way. How could you possibly think I would let you go through with that? It's suicide."

"No, it'll work." Amber protested. "There's no way it won't." She looked up at him with pleading blue eyes. Still, no way. "Really? And it won't be a problem that you'll probably get yourself killed in the process? Unless you're bringing Leo."

Now it was Amber's turn to look away. She bit her lip. Leo wasn't coming with them. But…"I still want to try." She insisted. "Piper, Phoebe, or Paige could call for Leo if I got hurt."

"Yeah, that's really going to help when you're already dead." He reminded her.

"I'm still going to." Amber was adamant. She wanted to do _something_. And if this was their best chance to catch the Soul Sucker…"It's not like I won't recognize it when I find it. I can handle this, I _can_." She was leaning forward, her face set in hopeful determination.

He raised his voice "You're not doing this. I don't care if you think you can handle it. I don't think you're ready."

"News flash- your opinion stopped mattering when you left."

Amber was frustrated. Not to mention mad. What made her even madder was that she wasn't sure whose emotions were whose. You know, you'd think that ability would be useful, but with Chris, it was utterly useless. The only times she could sense emotions from him was when they were written all over his face. Which made the ability utterly useless when applied to him. And he was the only one she cared to use it for.

"If I have to go to this thing with you to stop you, I will." He warned. He was tempted to anyway, just to keep an eye on her.

"I do not need a baby-sitter." Amber started, and then changed her tone. "Fine. I give up. If it bugs you that much, I won't do it. Okay?"

Chris was suspicious. Was she really giving up that easily? He doubted it. He'd have to drop in tomorrow to make sure she was doing what she was supposed to. "Okay."

She blinked at him, surprised. She'd totally expected to spend the next hour trying to convince him that she'd given up the idea, and it took about thirty seconds. Sheesh. Maybe she was better than she thought at lying. She didn't think so.

"So, was that all you had to say?" Chris had returned to being aloof.

"Yeah, that about covers it." She said with a sigh. Evidently deciding there was no reason to stay in the room with her for any longer, he orbed out.

Amber flopped down on her bed, staring at the wall and began to hone her plan. She was _not_ letting him stop her.


	10. Chapter 10

_**I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. And they keep getting more fun from here **_

_**Chapter Nine**_

Amber was in the kitchen all the next afternoon working on potions. She _was_ getting better at it, whatever Paige said. She'd needed something to do after she'd finished the first potion, so she had started throwing together ingredients. She saw Piper come in out of the corner of her eye but didn't look up from the potion she was making. She hummed lightly under her breath as she stirred five times and then unscrewed the cap and tossed in a fine powder. The potion turned a very deep mulberry, almost black. Piper sniffed delicately.

"Whoa, that's one strong…lust-inducing potion. I hope you aren't planning to use that on—"

"No!" Amber interrupted quickly. She actually looked at the potion she'd been brewing. "Oh, right. Lust potion. Huh. No…" She finally processed Piper's thought about the usage of it and sounded disgusted as she replied. "No, I wasn't planning on using it on anyone really. It just came out."

"Hmm." Piper's eyebrow, the one with the scar in it, rose. "Good, 'cause I think that potion could kill someone."

Amber looked a little sheepish. "I just started throwing things in, it really didn't occur to me what I was making."

Piper picked up the bottle containing the powder Amber had just thrown in. Her eyebrow would have risen to her hairline were that possible. "Spanish fly?"

Amber blushed madly. She really hadn't been paying attention. Really? Spanish fly? She read the label on the bottle. "I swear I had no idea, I mean, I wasn't really thinking…" She trailed off. No way would Piper actually believe her on that account. Then it occurred to her to counter with, "Why do you even _have_ that in the _house_?"

Piper shook her head and laughed. "I don't know, it must be Paige's."

The conversation was starting to head into an area that Amber had absolutely no interest in exploring. "I finished the potions for tonight."

"By yourself?" Piper picked up a bottle and inspected it.

"Yes." Amber managed to keep herself from rolling her eyes. "And I did it without blowing anything up."

"It's about time."

Amber's temper perked back up before she realized that Piper was only teasing her. She decided to poker Piper back. "I can't help it if I'm not an all-so-perfect Charmed One."

"Ha! Right." Piper found that amusing. "This thing starts at six, so you should start getting ready."

She was right. If Amber wanted to achieve any sort of dramatic effect for tonight, she'd better start working now. She quickly bottled the potion and collected them together to bring with her upstairs. The lust-inducing potion, she carefully placed in the black trunk at the foot of her bed, which also contained her Book of Shadows. The others she put on the bed in a small pile. She'd brewed enough potion for them to each have three. After all, she'd had all day to do it. Okay, so that was pathetic, but whatever. She _liked_ working on her potions. Not as much as she'd developed an enjoyment for kicking demon ass, but she hadn't really had opportunity since Chris left...

Anyway. There was a lot of potion. She rummaged through her closet and pulled out her chosen ensemble, which she gently laid on the bed.

Normally she hated wearing makeup. But it was one of those times where she didn't have a choice in the matter. She sat on the counter while Phoebe applied various creams and powders and whatnot to her clean face. She had pretty much no talent in that area, all she could really do was properly apply liquid liner and lipstick. Or gloss, as the case may be. But the situation called for something more suitably dramatic. And so, she sat as still as she could while she waited. She had reined Phoebe in to some degree. She was not to apply any form of foundation (she hated the way it felt on her face) or blush. She blushed way too easily as it was and hated it. No way in hell would she go out of her way to add color to her face. She was also nervous about the lipstick. She preferred red. She could tolerate a coral or a dark pink.

"Don't mess up your eye shadow." Phoebe cautioned predictably, dabbing a lipstick onto Amber's lips. "Alright, you're done."

Amber hopped off the counter and peered in the mirror anxiously. Wow. Phoebe was an artist. Her eyes were rimmed with dark smoky shadow and her lips were glossy and only faintly pink. "Perfect." She sighed with relief.

"Thanks." Phoebe flashed a grin at her.

"Please. I should be thanking you. I can't do anything with," she gestured to the powders and make-up wands scattered across the bathroom counter. "You have no idea how much I appreciate this." Now she looked critically at her hair in the mirror. She still hadn't done anything with it, even though she really would have preferred to leave it down. As it was, it rioted in waves down her back. She brushed it out and used hair pins to push the hair back from either side of her face. Her hair was her most remarkable feature and she wanted to be able to toss it. It would definitely catch the attention of the Soul Sucker when it was searching for a victim. All a part of the master plan. She nodded with satisfaction and went back to her room for the final stage of preparation. The dress. She stripped off the denim skirt and blue striped blouse she'd been wearing and stepped into the dress she'd chosen. It was emerald green and fit her like a glove. She'd never had the opportunity to wear it until now. She strapped her feet into glittering silver stilettos that she'd borrowed from Paige's closet and pronounced herself finished. She tucked the potions into a purse and tried not to trip over her own feet on her way downstairs.

Chris orbed into the Manor living room. All three of the Charmed Ones were dressed up and sitting on the couch. Their slightly bored expressions changed to identical expressions of mild surprise. "Chris, what are you doing here?" Piper inquired calmly.

"I came to check up on A—you." He turned his sentence around at last minute. Suddenly he noticed that Piper was clothed in full formal wear. "What do you think you're doing? You can't go to a demon vanquish. I mean, look at you."

"Excuse me?" Piper's eyebrow went up. "What's wrong with me?"

"You're pregnant. You can't go on a demon hunt, it's too dangerous." Chris blurted. He'd thought it was obvious. He could not believe that Piper was being that stupid. Piper stood up. "In case you haven't noticed, I can take care of myself."

Phoebe made a face in response to Piper's claim. "Yeah, but part of taking care of yourself is making sure you don't put yourself into dangerous situations in the first place."

"Thank you." Chris looked triumphant. "See, I'm not the only one."

"We've been _through_ this already," Piper argued, looking frustrated.

"Yeah, but Piper, that doesn't change anything. You still don't have a shield, and that means you're in a whole lot more danger." Paige reminded her.

Chris gritted his teeth. "What are the chances of you guys letting that go?" He asked, but no one was listening.

"Besides, what if you go into labor? Even if you did have the force field, it wouldn't help with that." Paige continued.

Chris heaved a sigh and looked off in another direction. He rubbed his hand lightly against his forehead, a useless attempt at alleviating the headache that had taken root. Of course. No one was going to listen to him, as usual. "Can we get back to the point, please? Piper, you're not going. It's too dangerous."

"Hey! Who is the parent here? If I say I'm going, I'm going." Piper said stubbornly.

"No, he's right." Amber spoke up. Who knew how long she'd been standing there, but it was evidently long enough to know what they were arguing about. "Piper, it really _isn't_ safe. Chris is from the future, so wouldn't you think he'd know when he was born?"

"When _were_ you born, Chris?" Phoebe asked, curious.

"Soon." He said vaguely. He was pretty sure that fell under the category of things he couldn't tell them. Consequences and all.

"Huh. Must not be too soon, or you wouldn't have a problem telling us." Piper responded, pleased.

Chris tilted his head. "Do you really want to take that chance? I could be born tomorrow."

"He's right." Phoebe agreed. "We really can't take any chances on something—anything—happening."

Piper knew they were right. She _did_, but it was just in her nature to stand her ground. Especially when people tried to tell her what she could or couldn't do. "Fine." She eased back onto the couch. "If it makes you happy, I'll stay here."

"Great." Chris was relieved. That took care of one of his problems. "I'm going to get changed. When does this thing start anyway?"

"What?" The exclamation came from Amber, who was still standing somewhere behind him. "You can't go with us!"

He started to turn and respond to that, but paused to look at Phoebe when she responded first with, "Why not? With Piper staying here, we could use an extra set of eyes."

"Exactly. Besides, you don't think I'd actually let you go by yourself—" He'd turned around and his eyes widened. "…looking like…that." He managed to finish, gaping at her.

"What's wrong with this?" Amber sounded defensive.

Everything was wrong with it. Especially the slit up to her thigh. Were he capable of conscious thought, he would probably be smacking his head against the wall a few times. This was cruel and unusual punishment. Meanwhile the conversation was continuing around him.

"Nothing's wrong with it, you look great. But you're not going to blend very well." Phoebe told her.

"It's the only thing I have. I've never gotten to wear it." Amber's expression was pitiful. Yeah, right. He was still gaping at her, but she hadn't noticed yet. She was too busy arguing strenuously with Phoebe, who was trying rationally to convince her of why they needed Chris to go with them. Amber was adamant that they could handle it without him, shooting occasional glares in his direction. What did he _do_ to deserve this reaction? Oh, right.

Amber was in a bad temper. She knew full well that the only reason that Chris was so damn determined to go was to keep an eye on her. And she did _not_ need a baby sitter. So she was understandably very cranky. What the _hell_ made him think that he could tell her what she could or couldn't do? Okay, she got the whole whitelighter thing, but _still_. He'd disappeared for how long, letting the sisters take over her witch training? And out of the blue, he comes back and starts bossing her around. Of course it didn't occur to her that he was probably right.

Chris snapped out of it to see that the room was now empty but for Piper, who was standing in front of him. "Hi. Didn't you say you were going somewhere?" She was regarding him steadily, but the amused glint in her eye gave her away. He shook his head slightly, not in answer, but to clear it. Piper reached up to pat him on the shoulder as she walked past him into the other room. He orbed back to his room, feeling more than a little stupid.

When Chris returned to the Manor, he felt that he was more or less prepared this time. No one was in the living room, but he thought he heard voices coming from the kitchen, so he meandered that way. He passed Paige on the way, and she stopped to stare at him. "You look…" She couldn't think of what to say, so after giving him a head to foot inspection, she ended with "Interesting."

"Thanks. You definitely know how to inspire confidence in a guy." was his typically sarcastic response. This was too much. Bad enough he felt uncomfortable in this- not that he'd ever say it out loud- but this really wasn't making him feel a whole hell of a lot better. Paige shrugged unapologetically and continued moving to wherever she was going. Chris walked into the kitchen, fiddling with the collar of his shirt. As if the whole get-up wasn't uncomfortable enough. Amber was sitting on the counter, as she often did—though never wearing what she was wearing now—talking to Phoebe, the only other person in the room. They stopped talking the minute he walked in, Amber's lips suddenly compressing. She obviously didn't want him to hear whatever it was she'd been saying. Probably something about him. He wasn't exactly Mr. Popularity around here these days. Wonder why, he was so charming. In his head he smirked, but outwardly he responded to their stares with a defensive "What?"

Amber blinked. "Nothing. You look…" She paused. Great. Not again. He finished her sentence for her. "I heard. Interesting." Chris shrugged one shoulder as if brushing it off.

"No!" She blurted. "I mean, you look great." He noted the faint blush tingeing her cheeks.

"You just…" She broke off again to size him up. Her carefully considering expression was a little unsettling. "You look uncomfortable." She stated. He wondered if she'd noticed that through his body language alone or if her empath power had given her a hand. He kept a pretty tight rein on his emotions—for a reason, so Amber and Phoebe couldn't sense them—but sometimes things slipped through the cracks of the wall he maintained to block people out. He chose not to respond to her insight, instead changing the subject, "So what's the deal with Mom? She did agree to stay here right?" He couldn't remember off the top of his head at this point in time.

"Yep, she agreed to stay here with Leo to keep an eye on her. Well, you know we didn't say that or she'd have had a fit. He's here to 'keep her company'. Of course, you would have known that if you hadn't been too busy trying to pick your tongue up off the floor." Phoebe's eyes held a teasing sparkle. His eyes shot swiftly to Amber, gauging her reaction. He expected to see satisfaction, maybe. Something like that. Not the curiosity that showed on her face along with slight scrutiny. She apparently didn't take Phoebe seriously in her teasing. That was a good thing—the last thing he needed was renewed hope for something he couldn't give. She was still looking to him for a reaction, an indication or tell-tale sign of something. He kept a carefully bland expression. "No, I wasn't. I was thinking, that's all."

"Ha, yeah right." Phoebe was not buying it. "I saw you. You were zoned for a good five minutes." She was relentless—like a damn pit bull. And why not? This was her forte. Playing matchmaker. Hell, she'd even married a cupid! There was no way she was doing this to him. Not on his life. "Whatever." He said aloud in response. Lucky for him, Paige swept in at that moment. "Okay, guys, Piper has been subdued. Ready?" She offered an arm to Phoebe melodramatically.

"Hold up." Amber handed them each a couple potions. "Okay, now we're good."

"Okay. Good luck." Phoebe said, linking her arm with Paige's proffered one. They vanished in a scattering of molecules. Amber drew out the potions that had been intended for Piper from her purse. She handed them to Chris, who pocketed them. "Ready?" He asked, holding out his hand.

"As ready as I'll ever be to face a soul sucking demon." Amber quipped. She feigned nonchalance as she reached out to take the proffered hand. She squeezed her eyes shut. It made orbing easier. She'd gotten more or less used to it. But she still closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were in a hallway, thankfully an empty one. They could hear music and rumblings of voices—people talking and laughing. They walked towards the sounds and as they walked through the clusters of people, they kept their eyes out for Phoebe and Paige, but the girls were nowhere to be found. Amber grinned at Chris playfully. "I guess you're my date."

Chris choked. "What? Date? When did I say this was a date?" He wracked his brain for everything he'd said in the past ten minutes that could possibly have suggested that. She was looking at him with her eyebrows raised in an infuriating manner. "_Or_ we could split up." She turned her back to him and made her way through the crowd. Chris swore and went after her. After hearing out her method of catching the Soul Sucker, he knew it would be a really bad idea to let her go off alone. She'd get herself killed in a heartbeat. Not that she hadn't been trained well; but she hadn't been trained enough. He surveyed the people whirling and laughing, looking for her, but she'd lost herself in the clusters of people talking, and he couldn't see her. He searched every face until he caught sight of bright hair flashing in the light as she tossed it. She was clearly flirting with the complete and total stranger she was talking to. "You've got to be kidding." He muttered, and strode toward her. He leaned forward, grabbed Amber's arm. The look he threw at the man she'd been chatting with was frosty.

"Don't you have your own date to get back to?" He snapped before dragging Amber off. "What were you doing?" He wasn't bothering to hide his annoyance.

She shrugged, all wide eyed innocence. "You seemed uncomfortable with me. Besides," She added sensibly, "How else do you expect to find the Soul Sucker?"

"How about you try not throwing yourself at every guy you see?"

Amber's immediate reaction was to feel a hot and fierce anger. She was not throwing herself at guys. She was simply doing what she'd come here to do- and that was track down the flesh-flaying demon. There was absolutely nothing wrong with what she'd done, she assured herself. Nothing at all. Being deep in thought, she was understandably startled when Chris, who'd been quiet, possibly thinking while she was fuming, made an annoyed grumbling sound and said "Please tell me you know how to dance."

She blinked up at him, completely thrown. "What?"

"Do you. Know how. To dance?" He said more slowly. Okay, she wasn't an idiot, she thought, irritated. She was just surprised…Oh, right. Now she stopped obsessing and actually looked around, and noticed that people around them were dancing. She knew a thing or two about dancing. Not enough to say she knew how. But enough that she would look like she'd been doing it for years, compared to Chris. She put on a show of bravado and grinned at him. "Sure, I'll show you." She took his hand and, wrapping his arm around her waist, placed it on the small of her back. She slid one extremely cautious hand lightly up his arm, coming to a rest on his shoulder blade. She took his other hand—he automatically interlocked their fingers, which she quickly corrected, "No, see, it's like this. You lay the one hand over the other light, like this." She demonstrated so that her hand lay carefully light over his.

When Amber reached for his hand, her fingers slid down his arm, brushing his wrist ever so slightly before clasping his hand. He shivered and was instantly chagrined. He sincerely hoped she hadn't seen that. She gave him a questioning look. His jaw was set tight as she instructed him in a low voice while leading him. He glanced down to see what pattern he was supposed to go in—and make sure he didn't step on her feet—and was promptly reminded of how low-cut her dress was. He peeled his eyes away so he wouldn't get caught staring. That would just make things worse. He focused all his attention on memorizing the steps. He almost laughed when he realized how simple they were.

The smirk that suddenly flicked across Chris's face unsettled Amber. She suddenly found herself being led in the dance instead of leading. Momentarily she relaxed, finding that he had learned quickly. She inhaled his scent surreptitiously. This closeness was completely unfamiliar, but dancing was as good an excuse as any to be close to him. And if that didn't make sense, well, of course it didn't. She was losing track of conscious thought.

Phoebe was making rounds around the edge of the dance floor, looking for the Soul Sucker, with Paige in tow. She stopped dead when she saw a familiar pair out on the dance floor. "Is that Chris?" She asked wonderingly. Paige followed her gaze. "Yep. And Amber."

"Oh, don't they look so cute?" Phoebe cooed.

"Adorable." Paige rolled her eyes before actually looking. "Oh. How sweet." Her scarlet lips formed an enchanted smile in response to the sight of Chris extending an arm for Amber to slowly twirl out and back in. "I didn't know Chris could dance." Her tone was filled with some surprise.

"Me either." Phoebe admitted, watching.

"Shouldn't they be looking for the Soul Sucker?" Paige pointed out doubtfully.

Phoebe watched the pair with a knowing look in her eye. "No. Give them a little time. Then you can go tell them to get back to looking."

Paige gave her sister an odd look. "Okay. Whatever you say." She scanned the room, narrow-eyed, searching for anyone that looked out of place. Nope….nada….zip….Frustrated, she scanned again. Well, this was annoying. How was she supposed to pick this thing out of the crowd, if she had no idea what to look for? Her nose wrinkled up as she squinted somewhat, surveying the room. Her eyes finally settled back on Chris and Amber. "Whoa, hello. Is he kissing her?"

Chris had stopped thinking awhile ago, and started just seeing her. She was so different from anyone else he'd ever met, especially since he'd come here almost a year ago. He felt like she actually cared about him. It took some getting used to. He remembered how happy she'd been to take care of him when he'd been down with that damn sprained ankle. She'd waited on him hand and foot those couple of days and seemed to _enjoy_ doing it. Looking at her, he felt…warmth. It was strange. He liked it. His focus shifted to intensify on her face. Her thickly lashed, deep blue eyes were searching his face intently, her cheeks flushed. Her lips were slightly parted, and in response, he licked his own. As though he were sleeping, he leaned forward and removing his hand from where it curved gently around her waist, he reached out and ran his thumb over her full lower lip. He tore his gaze away to glance briefly over her shoulder to see the man she'd been chatting up earlier heading upstairs with another young woman. He was brought back to reality with a lurching thought…the Soul Sucker! Of course. He'd failed at getting Amber, so he was taking another victim. He broke away, and walked as swiftly after the man as he could without getting too many odd looks.

Amber stared after him, lightly touching her lip with her fingertips. Did he just? Did he really…did that really just happen, or was it all just her imagination? She _did_ have an active imagination.. She had to wonder… it was so unlike the way he'd been behaving. Yet her lip still burned where he'd touched it. Bewildered, she turned and wandered off. She needed fresh air and quiet, where she could think properly.

Phoebe let out all the air she'd been holding in. "Oh." She sounded so disappointed. "He didn't do it."

Paige was frowning. "Yeah, you know, I really thought for a second there, he would."

Just as Phoebe was about to agree, a brightly clad woman brushed her shoulder accidentally as she passed by. The scent of something dead beginning to decay lay under the scent of the flowery perfume. Phoebe gasped as the images surrounded her, the disorienting, dizzying sensation overtaking her. She groped blindly for something to hold onto to keep her balance. As her sight returned, Paige helped her to sit down on the nearest staircase. "Amber." Phoebe blurted. "She's going to get attacked by the Soul Sucker."

"Okay, just breathe, relax, and explain." Paige held Phoebe's shoulder. Phoebe took a deep breath. "I saw Amber outside, being attacked by the Soul Sucker. She's in trouble." She told Paige earnestly. "We have to find her."

"Wait, did you see who it was?" Paige had to know. If Phoebe had seen the Soul Sucker, they might be able to kill it before it got to Amber. Phoebe stood up and peered over the crowd. "Her! She bumped into me, and that's when I had the premonition. She really reeks too."

"That's our girl." Paige said with satisfaction. She took a moment to think. "Or is it our rotting corpse?"

"Who cares, we have to get her!" Phoebe said urgently, grabbing Paige's arm and dragging her across the floor, muttering excuse-me's and coming-through's, as they shoved through the mess of people. They barely caught sight of the top of the Soul Sucker's head as she peered around before leaving through a back door.

Chris had stopped thinking awhile ago, and started just seeing her. She was so different from anyone else he'd known. He felt like she actually cared about him. It took some getting used to. He remembered how happy she'd been to take care of him when he'd been down with that damn sprained ankle. She'd waited on him hand and foot those couple of days, and seemed to _like_ doing it. Looking at her, he felt…warmth. It was weird. He liked it. His focus shifted to intensify on her face. Her thickly lashed, deep blue eyes were searching his face intently, her cheeks flushed. Her lips were slightly parted, and in response, he licked his own. As though he were sleeping, he leaned forward and removing his hand from where it curved gently around her waist, he reached out and ran his thumb over her full lower lip. He happened to glance away briefly over her shoulder, and saw the man she'd been chatting up earlier heading upstairs with another young woman. He was brought back to reality with the lurching thought…the Soul Sucker! Of course. He'd failed at getting Amber, so he was taking another victim. He broke away, and walked as swiftly after the man as he could without getting too many odd looks.

Amber stared after him, lightly touching her lip with her fingertips. Did he just? Did he really…did that really just happen, or was it all just her imagination? She _did_ have an active imagination…she had to wonder…after all, it was so unlike the way he'd been behaving. Yet her lip still burned where he'd touched it. Bewildered, she turned and wandered off. She needed fresh, cool air, and quiet, where she could think properly.

Phoebe let out all the air she'd been holding in. "Oh." She sounded so disappointed. "He didn't do it."

Paige was frowning. "Yeah, you know, I really thought for a second there, he would."

Just as Phoebe was about to agree, a brightly clad woman brushed her shoulder accidentally as she passed by. The scent of something dead beginning to decay lay under the scent of the flowery perfume. Phoebe gasped as the images surrounded her, the disorienting, dizzying sensation taking over. She groped blindly for something to hold onto to keep her balance. As her sight returned, Paige helped her to sit down on the nearest staircase. "Amber." Phoebe blurted. "She's going to get attacked by the Soul Sucker."

"Okay, just breathe, relax, and explain." Paige held Phoebe's shoulder. Phoebe took a deep breath. "I saw Amber outside, being attacked by the Soul Sucker. She's in trouble." She told Paige earnestly. "We have to find her."

"Wait, did you see who it was?" Paige had to know. If Phoebe had seen the Soul Sucker, they might be able to kill it before it got to Amber. Phoebe stood up and peered over the crowd. "Her! She bumped into me, and that's when I had the premonition. She really reeks too."

"That's our girl." Paige said with satisfaction. She took a moment to think. "Or is it our rotting corpse?"

"Who cares, we have to get her!" Phoebe said urgently, grabbing Paige's arm and dragging her across the floor, muttering excuse me-s and coming through-s, as they bowled through the mess of people. They barely caught sight of the top of the Soul Sucker's head as she peered around before leaving through a back door.

~~O~~

Chris jerked in shock. He distinctly- not exactly heard, but something like it- a call for help. Amber's thoughts were jumbling in a panic. He orbed, cursing himself for being an idiot. When his molecules reassembled, he was outside and Amber was on the ground, back arching, as the Soul Sucker greedily inhaled the ethereal light emitting from her mouth. Oh, _shit_. But, the Soul Sucker hadn't seen him yet. He sidestepped a little and waited, watching intently. He was taking a huge risk, but it was the only way he might have a chance at saving her. He spared a glance for his two aunts, lying on the ground outside the exit. He wasn't making the same mistake. He returned his eyes to the Soul Sucker. Pieces of decayed skin were flaking off in big chunks now. When the majority of the skin had peeled off, he tugged out a potion and, carefully aiming, hurled it at the Soul Sucker. It twisted around, let out a high-pitched shrieking sound, and exploded rather wetly, sending what looked like blood and some chunks of flesh spattering all over the place.

The white light rushed back down Amber's throat. She inhaled sharply, and then choked. She managed to sit up. Her head was pounding a staccato rhythm and she groaned aloud. "Okay, let's not do that again- ever." She told Chris, gingerly pressing her hand to her head. He laughed, reaching a hand down to help her to her feet.

"I agree with that!" Phoebe weakly raised a hand as she pushed herself to a sitting position. Paige winced as she stood up. "Yeah, me too. How did that potion not work?"

Chris was starting to look smug, which meant he knew something they didn't. Amber's brow quirked curiously as she waited for him to say something.

"You forgot to read the small print. The skin protects it. You can't kill it until it sheds. That's when it's the most susceptible."

Paige made a face at him. She hated when he got all smug and self satisfied. It irked her.

"Well, _sorry_, Mr. Smarty-pants. I guess I forgot." She tried to brush some residue off her dress. "I am so ready to go home. _I_ am having a nice bath, and dreaming about a life where my favorite outfits do _not_ get covered in demon goo every day."

"Oh, that sounds good." Phoebe agreed whole-heartedly. Paige grabbed her arm and orbed, leaving behind a frowning Amber and a still-smug Chris. She looked at him. "I don't remember it saying that in the book."

"It didn't. I was just messing with her." Chris admitted. Amber's frown deepened. "But you were right."

"Yeah. I did a _little_ research so I could see what we were up against." Chris told her.

"Oh." Amber looked at the ground, and then back up at him. "Well, thanks. You kicked ass and saved us, and it's kind of pissing me off that they didn't bother thanking you."

Chris shrugged. "I'm used to it."

Amber bit her lower lip unhappily. Used to it or not, that didn't make it okay.

She would have said something else, were it not for Leo orbing in, with very important news.

"Piper's in labor."

_**A/N- About time, if you ask me.**_


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry about the longer than usual update I had a busy week and a crazy weekend. **

**Ch. 10**

It was nerve-wracking.

Chris was sitting in a hard plastic chair in the waiting room. His body looked relaxed to the casual viewer, but his nerves were like tightly stretched guitar strings. He wasn't tapping or fidgeting, but his muscles were so taut that he was starting to tremble a little, and his hands gripped the chair so that his knuckles were white. It was ridiculous to worry, right? He'd already been born; there was no reason why anything should go wrong. But there was always that nagging thought in the back of his mind whispering, _maybe you changed too much. _As always, he ignored it.

Amber was sitting in the chair next to him, jiggling her leg so hard, she half wondered if it would fall off. God, this was nerve-wracking. Not only did she have to deal with her own nerves, but she had to deal with the nerves of Chris, Phoebe, Paige, and Leo, who hadn't been allowed back in. Phoebe was, of course, probably in the same situation. But right now she found it hard to feel sympathy. She was too busy feeling what everyone else feeling and shaking her leg at hyper-speed. She was going crazy. At least everyone was feeling pretty much the same thing though. Luckily Wyatt was too young to know what was happening. He was curled up in the corner on a chair, sleeping with his thumb in his mouth. She glanced at Chris. His jaw was set and he was as intensely focused as she'd ever seen him. He was staring straight ahead, but didn't really seem to be looking at anything in particular. She lifted her hand, hesitated for a few minutes, then reached out and touched his shoulder lightly in an attempt to reassure him. "You do know everything's going to be okay? I mean, it'll be fine." Maybe trying to reassure herself a little too. Chris shifted a little to look her straight in the eyes with his half lidded ones. "How do _you_ know?"

"Because you're still here." She reminded him, dropping her hand to rest on her leg. "If something were wrong, don't you think you'd start to…I don't know, fade like that guy in Back to the Future?"

"I'm not fading, right?" He sounded a little concerned, even though she'd kind of been joking. Amber looked him over and grinned at him. "Nope. Still in full color."

He shook his head slightly and returned to staring blankly ahead. Amber returned to shaking her leg, although she personally felt a little better. Chris did too, she could tell, because the whirling emotions were relaxing a little. Which meant she just had to worry for everyone else. She sighed and put her hand to her forehead.

"So." He spoke again, startling her. "If you're so calm, how come your leg's shaking?"

"Empath, remember?" She reminded him. "I'm stuck feeling everyone else's anxiety."

He looked towards the ceiling. "Right."

It seemed to take forever. It left Amber wondering how long could it possibly take to give birth. Hadn't there been times where women were in labor for 12 hours? She wished she had a book, but even if she had she wouldn't have the concentration to read it. Paige was sitting in a chair across the room pretending to read a magazine. Amber knew she was really staring blankly at the page. She hadn't flipped a page in the past ten minutes, but she seemed to be staring intently at it. Amber started clicking her fingernails on the chair. Then she realized that it probably wasn't helping, so she forced herself to stop. Chris was still seemingly relaxed in the chair next to her, but she knew he was stretched tight with nerves. She glanced down at her wrist and promptly remembered that she didn't have a watch. Geez! How long had it been? She looked up at the clock on the wall. Several hours, they'd been waiting. She didn't remember exactly when they'd gotten there, but Piper had been in labor even before that. She wriggled impatiently in her seat.

Finally, the doctor came out. Walked by and said nothing. A few minutes later, he returned and went back into the room. Amber briefly considered blowing him up, but decided that Leo would get mad at her. Never mind Chris. He'd probably take her side. Her mouth tugged up into a tiny smile at that thought. She stared at the door, willing it to open. A few minutes later, it did, and the doctor came out. He informed them that Piper was tired, but well, and resting with the baby. They were welcome to go in to see how she was doing and congratulate her if they were quiet. He didn't seem to approve of all of them being there, but he didn't say anything about it. Amber wondered if Piper had demanded it. She followed along into the hospital room with the others, a little cautiously. She didn't quite feel like she fit in this family scene. Then again, Chris didn't seem to either, right now. Piper was lying in the hospital bed, beaming tiredly at Leo, who went immediately to her bedside. "I am going home now. You tell that doctor I am not staying overnight." There was no reason to doubt her words because they left the impression that whether the doctor liked it or not, she would pack up baby Chris and walk out of the hospital, thumbing her nose at all the nurses.

Leo chuckled. Pure Piper. "Don't worry about it, Piper. I'll make sure you and Chris get home." He bent over baby Chris and cooed at him, smiling. Amber didn't miss the annoyed look on Chris' face.

Piper smiled the sweetest smile she'd offered Leo in longer than he could remember.

"You want to hold him, Daddy?"

Leo took the offered infant and cradled him carefully. Phoebe moved to stand next to him, so she could coo over baby Chris, while holding a very sleepy Wyatt securely on her hip. Paige stood peering over her shoulder, a sweet smile turning up her lips. "Hey, baby Chris." She said to him, keeping in mind that the full-grown version of the infant was standing a few feet away. Amber hung back, watching them longingly She wished she had the right to join in but it didn't seem right. She glanced to either side, feeling that something was missing. Chris. She turned around and saw him standing at the window, just looking out. She felt a small flicker of emotion. He was feeling left out and a little confused. She walked up to him, but kept a fair enough distance that she wasn't _right_ there. "Happy birthday." She said quietly.

He held back an incredulous laugh. "Yeah. Maybe for some people." He said, not looking at her. Maybe it was his birthday, but did anyone think of that? They were all focused on the baby… who he guessed _was_ him. Now, _that_ was mind-boggling.

"What's bad about it?" Amber questioned. He could hear a frown in her voice as she tried to figure out what was going on. What was he supposed to say to that? It seemed kind of obvious. Nobody was paying attention to him. It was his _birthday_, for God's sake.

"Maybe because people have kind of forgotten that I exist." He suggested. "It is my birthday." He didn't realize until he finally glanced at her that he'd said something wrong.

She was visibly steaming, her hands on her hips, blue eyes sparking at him. If she'd still had her pyrokinesis, her fingers would be flickering. He stepped back a little, eyes widening a little.

"And what," She fumed. "Does that make me? Chopped liver?"

Uh-oh. He sensed that he already knee-level deep in shit and sinking fast.

Insulted didn't even begin to cover what Amber was feeling right now. She was livid. Sure, she was only person, but did she get any consideration? Of course not. Not her. She wasn't important enough to count, apparently. She'd gone up to him to wish him a happy birthday…and he's too busy wallowing to notice. She'd had enough of his self-absorption. She aimed another glare at Chris before stalking out of the room, feeling every person's eyes on her rigidly held back.

Everyone watched Amber go, giving a defiant toss of her head as she went. Then they all looked at Chris. He sighed and stared moodily out the window, mood getting darker by the moment. Leo spoke first, glancing around at everyone. "I'll go talk to her. Paige or Phoebe, you go get Piper signed out of here. And Chris," He gave his younger son a level look. "I don't know what you said to her, but I hope you plan to apologize for it." Then he walked out. Chris continued to stare sullenly out the window until his mother's voice interrupted his wallowing. "Come here, Chris."

He moved to the side of her bed. She held out the blanket-wrapped infant. "Would you like to hold him?"

He barely managed to mask his surprise. He accepted the bundle awkwardly, a little alarmed at the prospect of holding himself. As a baby. God, his life had never been more bizarre. And with the life he lived, that was saying something. Piper gently corrected his arm positioning. "Careful, make sure you support the head." She cautioned him, as she made a few small adjustments here and there. "That's more like it."

He looked down at the mini version of himself. He was extremely weirded out by this, but in all honesty, it wasn't bad. Not really. He honestly couldn't remember being this little. Not that he would, being a baby, or whatever. It was beyond strange, imagining that this little baby was…_him_.

"What do you say you orb me out of here?" Piper suggested, sitting up a little clumsily.

He raised an eyebrow at his mother. "Shouldn't you wait until you're signed out?"

Piper waved a hand impatiently at him. "Phoebe and Paige went to do that and I want out of here."

He smiled for what felt like the first time in ages. "Okay, fine."

Amber slid into the car next to Phoebe. She reached up and tried to work her fingers through her tangled hair. They'd gone straight to the hospital, so everyone was still wearing what they'd worn to the charity ball. They must've been an odd site in the hospital, Amber thought. All dressed up in formal wear that was covered in some nasty substance—except, naturally for Chris, who'd been far enough out of the way to escape the flying pieces of demon. She could only assume some Gemini demons would be on their way to clean up _that_ mess. Her thoughts wandered to the rest of that night and an unhappy frown creased her brow. She'd thought… never mind. She fidgeted with her ruined gown, wondering if there was a spell to remove stains from clothing. She doubted it. Maybe she could write one. Now, there's a thought. She decided to ask Phoebe. "Hey, can we write our own spells?"

"Duh." Paige heard and answered for Phoebe. "We do it all the time."

Hm. Amber had an idea. She had no idea if it would work, but it was better than nothing. As soon as she got home, she was taking a hot shower and going to bed. She almost groaned aloud at the thought. She was _so_ tired…she couldn't wait.

Amber immediately hopped into the shower as soon as they got home. It took forever to wash the demon guts out of her hair. In her bedroom, she quickly threw on clean panties and a tee shirt. She hadn't forgotten the first time Chris had orbed into her room and didn't really want to take too much time getting dressed.

Chris heard the shower turn off and glanced at the clock. He'd give it another twenty minutes. Then he'd go up and talk to her. He tapped his fingers impatiently as the seconds ticked by. He kept glancing up at the clock. Finally he was so tired of waiting that he just orbed up to her room. He probably should have knocked first. Too late now. He realized immediately that he'd come too late. Amber was already sleeping with her back to him. The covers were piled next to her on the bed; one bare leg was thrown over them. She looked cold. He moved to her bedside and tugged the blanket over her, and if the back of his hand brushed her leg in the process, she didn't notice. He watched her promptly kick off the covers again and roll over to face him. For a moment he thought she'd woken up and was going to yell at him for being in her room or something. When she didn't wake, he relaxed. Well, whatever. If she got cold later, it was her fault. He shrugged it off and turned, about to orb out, when he heard her murmur something. She was talking in her sleep. Hmm. Okay, he had to admit to being curious. He stopped to watch her for a few minutes—just a few minutes, you know, to see if she said anything else. He'd been watching for a few minutes before she curled up and reached out a hand to pat the bed, clearly looking for something. He raised an eyebrow and tucked her in again. Apparently this time she wanted the blanket, because she snuggled under it and let out a sigh. A few minutes ago, she didn't want the blanket, and now she did…huh. He saw her lips curl up at the corners into a contented smile. He smiled a little in response and again turned to leave…until she murmured his name in her sleep. He froze. Now _that_ was interesting.

He slowly turned around again. It couldn't hurt right? Unless, of course, she woke up. That would be bad. He sat down. Amber said his name twice more and once, her brow crinkled and she tossed and turned a bit, discontent. She rolled over to face him and alarm bells of self-preservation went off in his head when he saw her eyes start to flicker open.

Amber sleepily pried open her eyes. She saw white lights dancing in the corner and squinted. They looked a lot like orbs. But her bedside clock informed her that it was 3:30 in the morning, so that didn't make sense. Oh, well. She gave a small sigh before tucking the blanket under her cheek and closing her eyes again.

~~O~~

When she woke up next, it was almost noon. She hadn't slept in this late in months. She felt a little embarrassed but then, she had been up pretty late…When she went downstairs, she hunted down some cereal and poured it in a bowl with some milk. She didn't know what to do with herself, she thought as she chewed. Phoebe and Paige were both at work and she didn't know where Piper was. She wandered out of the kitchen after breakfast to find Piper with Chris—baby Chris, that is—in the living room. Piper looked up and saw Amber and arched a brow at her. "Morning, sleepyhead."

"I don't know how I managed to sleep in this late." Amber said. "But the way I figure it, we all earned it. Um. Do you mind, if I—Do you—can I hold him?" She finally managed to ask, unable to look Piper in the eyes.

"Sure." Piper handed her the baby. The sparkling in her dark eyes suggested to Amber that Piper wasn't surprised about the request. She took the infant and cradled him, looking down at his face. It was unbelievable that he and her favorite whitelighter were actually the same person. "You know," She said absently, "If you have somewhere to go, I can keep an eye on him."

"I'll be sure to let you know." Piper was smiling. "I'll be upstairs. If he cries, let me know."

As she made her way towards the stairs, Amber settled down on a blanket that had been spread out on the floor. She spent the better part of the afternoon paying attention to the baby, who was surprisingly unfussy, seeing that his adult version was such a… there were too many words, none of which were appropriate. She was still annoyed with him. Then she remembered her idea. She found a pen and pad of paper and started writing and re-writing—furtively glancing up every so often. She hadn't been expecting Chris to show up—she was expecting him to pull another disappearing act on her, so she panicked a little when he orbed in out of nowhere. She quickly flipped the notebook closed and pushed the crumpled pieces of failed attempts under the blanket. Not the best method, but it worked. It was silent for awhile and she wondered if he was planning to say something, or just sit there all day. As bits of inspiration came to her, she alternated between swiftly flipping the notebook open so she could jot something down real fast, and then flip it closed again. "You know, Chris, now's not a good time, so…if you're here for a reason…?" She spoke without looking at him.

"Actually I came to apologize… for yesterday." He told her.

He hated apologizing. He didn't like knowing he had to. And he really wanted to know what it was she was writing that he couldn't see. She finally looked up at him, sounding mollified when she said, "Thanks. It's just…I don't like not figuring in anything. It bugs me that you don't consider me a person. You know, I'm more than just a charge." She reminded him. He gritted his teeth. He was completely aware of that. But people liked reminding him so much. "I know. I had a lot on my mind. I wasn't really thinking."

"So…you're sorry?" She clarified.

"I'm sorry…" The apology came out through stubborn lips. He really, really hated that. She beamed at him, jotted something down in that notebook she was writing in, folded and stuck it in her back pocket lightning quick. "Thanks for apologizing. Can you hold him a sec?" Without waiting for a reply, she plunked the baby into his arms and went off to go find something. When she returned, she was holding a….camera? Before he could ask what exactly she was doing, she snapped a picture of him. What the hell?

Amber almost laughed at the look on his face; it was obviously a what-the-hell? expression.

"To commemorate your birth." She told him. "I mean, how often do you get to hold yourself as a baby?" She didn't wait for a response to that. "Look, I've got to go run a couple errands, okay? Can you keep an eye on yourself for awhile?" She refrained from laughing yet again. Yeah, she was acting a little too cheerful, but it was a result of how nervous she felt. If this didn't work…

"Uh… sure. Whatever." He sat down. "Did you really need to take a picture?"

"Yes." She answered simply. "I'll be back later." She gave him one last look before leaving. It occurred to her that he might be insulted by how brief she'd been. She vowed to apologize to him when she got back. If he was there. Well, she had to hurry before the shops closed. She closed the door behind her and pulled out her keys.

~~O~~

Amber's errands took a couple hours. She had a couple of plastic bags in hand when she returned after dark. She went up to her room and stuffed them into the trunk at the foot of her bed. Everyone was still eating in the dining room, but since she'd already eaten while she was out, she sat on the stairs and waited for them to finish. She was rewarded for her patience when Chris was the first person to leave the table. She stood up and snagged his shirt sleeve. "Hey, Chris."

He looked at her. It was hard to see in the dark but she thought he looked a little hurt. She bit her lip. "I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I didn't mean to be so abrupt…I was just in a hurry to get my stuff done before the shops closed."

"Don't worry about it. It's no big deal." He said. She frowned a little at his back when he walked away and hoped he wasn't still upset.

Amber had to wait until everyone was in bed to do what she'd been working on all day. She pulled the bags out of the trunk and carefully made her way up to the attic, where she dumped out an assortment of red and white candles. She'd purchased some other things, but nothing she needed right now. She arranged them in a semi-large circle and stepped into the middle. She pulled out the folded paper from her back pocket and sat down. She also pulled out an envelope and tugged the picture she'd taken of Chris. Getting the photo developed was one of the errands she'd made while she was out. She taped the picture of Chris to the largest candle, which was in front of her. She lit all of the candles.

Then she began to read the spell that would change everything.

_Flame of love, burn so bright  
Aid me in my spell tonight  
From moon to moon, he will love me,  
As I will it, so mote it be._

The candles around her flared up brighter, and she reached with trembling fingers, to hold the piece of paper over the flame of the candle with Chris' picture attached to it.

**A/N**

**Yes. This was the reason for the name. Also, I got the spell off a random web site and changed the third line for my own purposes. And I admittedly hoped this chapter would turn out better than it did, but nonetheless, I hope you liked it.**


	12. Chapter 12

_**I am unbelievably sorry that it's been so long since my last update. I've been really busy lately because I turned this story into a web series and I've been holding auditions and meeting with my director and camera guy and whatnot. I don't have anything for this week so far, so fingers crossed that I'll have enough time upload the next chapter this week too.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed, however I do own Amber and Caden.**_

_**Chapter Eleven**_

Amber was on her way to the kitchen late Wednesday morning, chastising herself for sleeping in _again_ when she heard a familiar male voice…singing?_ It couldn't possibly be_… she walked into the kitchen and gaped. Sure enough, her ears didn't deceive her. He'd just hit the chorus…"I see you, cause you won't get out of my way …" He flipped a pancake "I hear you, cause you won't quit screaming my name. I feel you, cause you won't stop touching my skin, I need you…"

His voice quieted as he flipped the pancake onto a plate.

"I didn't know you sang." Amber said, by way of quietly announcing her presence. Chris turned around and smiled. It was different from the rare grin or his usual half-smile or smirk. Her eyes followed his movements toward her with curiosity. This was different. He leaned forward, warm breath brushing gently across her cheek as he lowed his mouth close to her ear and murmured, "Morning." He handed her the plate of pancakes, which she promptly dropped.

"Oh, _damn _it!" Piper rushed in, evidently having heard the plate crash to the floor. "What…" She paused, giving Chris an incredulous look. "Chris, since when do you cook?"

Chris flicked his hand and the pieces of shattered plate soared into the trash can, along with the now inedible pancakes and answered "Since always. What'd you expect, having you for a mom? Although," he remarked thoughtfully, "Wyatt couldn't cook for shit. Even before he was evil."

Piper's eyebrow went way up. "Watch your language, young man. And no using powers for personal gain, you hear?" As soon as she walked out, Chris rolled his eyes. "I don't know why I missed hearing that." But he was smiling a little when he said it, so Amber knew he didn't mean it. "You want me to make you breakfast again?" He offered. "But this time, I think I'll handle the plate."

"Oh. No, thanks." Amber declined with a little frown. There was something really _off_ about the way he was acting. "I think I'm going to—"The doorbell rang. "Answer the door." She finished.

~~O~~

When she opened the door, _he_ was there, looking even more unreal in daylight. His hair was the exact shade of silvery blonde she remembered, although his skin was paler than she had initially thought. She gaped at him disbelievingly. "You!" She spat.

He looked just as surprised to see her. "You're still human?" were the unbelievable words that came out of his mouth.

"No thanks to you." Amber was strongly considering skipping the small talk and just blowing him up.

"I think we should talk about this." He suggested smoothly in a slow drawl that was obviously Southern, though she couldn't have guessed where in the South he hailed from.

"I think you should leave." Amber countered. He laughed at that, effectively irritating her more.

"Well, I picked a feisty one." He looked her over in admiration. Amber literally growled in annoyance.

"For all you're still human, you act like one of us." He gave a sigh. "There's a shame. You'd make a great cat."

"Am I supposed to say thank you?" Amber had one hand on her hip. She didn't trust him, but he didn't seem to be doing any harm, other than pissing her off.

"I meant it as a compliment" He told her, sounding only mildly offended. He lowered his voice as he leaned in, "And anyway, you're already a hell-cat…in and out of bed…" He smirked at her as he sauntered into the house like he owned it. Amber gasped in outrage. She didn't know where to start. Finally, she managed to sputter, "How exactly do you know? And what do you think you're doing, walking into this house without being invited?"

"I may bite, but I'm not a vampire, sweetheart." He was still smirking and she was torn between annoyance and amusement. "And as it happens, I know a cat when I smell one—and you smell delicious."

Amber couldn't stop the blood from rushing to her cheeks. "I smell delicious? I thought you weren't a vampire."

"I didn't mean your blood. I was talking about your scent."

"My scent?" Amber was curious. She knew people had personal scents, but no one had ever mentioned hers.

"Yes." He had a disconcerting habit of leaning in toward her when he was talking, and now his lips were mere inches from her face when he spoke. "You know. The aroma that floats off your skin… you smell faintly sweet," He sniffed again, thoroughly disconcerting her. "But with a hint of woodsy scent, something fresh."

Amber was yet again left speechless. "I—I do?"

His smile was disarming. "Oh, yes." He leaned down further and inhaled the scent suffusing her skin and hair. Amber was afraid the color of her face was beginning to match her hair. She closed her eyes and took some deep breaths in hopes that the color would fade. She composed herself and opened her eyes. He was watching her with an amused expression. "Why—What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I came for you." His strange gold-green eyes focused on her. The pupils were narrow slits of blackness in the pool of gold.

"Why so late?" She asked bluntly. "If you were planning to get me all along, why didn't you come for me back then? That was a month ago."

"The full transformation usually takes that long." He sniffed her again, idly. "How long did it take?"

Amber snorted. "A month? It took me a couple hours."

His eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Really?" His surprise shifted to pride. "I knew you'd be the perfect cat." He said appreciatively. "You should've stayed one of us."

"I had other plans." Amber countered.

"And what were those, I wonder?" His eyes intensified on her face, as though he were truly fascinated by what she would say to that.

"I'm a witch. I'd kind of like to stay that way, you know, stick with what you know." Amber pointed out. He didn't seem surprised at her admission.

"You never wanted to try something new?" He was watching her with a slightly furrowed brow.

"No. I have my reasons, okay?" Amber looked away.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he assessed her. "I wonder what those reasons could be…"

"And you're going to keep wondering." Chris informed him from the doorway he was leaning against. He straightened and walked towards them. He slipped a possessive arm around Amber's waist. She looked from one guy to the other and saw that they were sizing each other up. She frowned…putting pieces together. The two men—whitelighter and werecat—were glaring at each other. Uh oh. The werecat moved toward Chris, emitting a hiss as his top lip curled back from wicked sharp canine teeth. Amber was about to step in case he attacked Chris when much to her surprise, he instead moved his face close to hers, tilted her chin up with one finger and said, "I'll be back for you." He sent her a slow smile and said, "By the way… my name is Caden." With that, he twisted around, shifting into an enormous sleek cat and fading into nothing as he padded away. He padded off, vanishing a few steps away. Amber stared for a moment. That was cool. She'd never seen _that_ in the magical world until now. She looked back up at Chris, who was glaring at the space where Caden had last stood, his jaw tense and the muscles working. "Bastard." He muttered, seemingly to himself. He waved his hand, and the door shut. Amber couldn't help but be extremely conscious of his arm, which was still around her waist. What was going on? He was being _weird_. He squeezed slightly, pulling her closer for a second, then relaxed a little more. "How going out to eat? Since you dropped the pancakes." He teased a bit.

"I wonder why," She murmured, then glanced at the clock. It would either be a late breakfast or an early lunch, as it was about 11. "Sure…"She drew the word out a little hesitantly. She just really wasn't sure what to expect from lunch. She still fully remembered the last time he'd taken her to lunch. She sucked in air when he orbed. She let it out when the scenery took on the appearance of the same cafe they'd gone to last time. She noted that he still had not removed his arm. Her brow wrinkled, but she didn't make any comment on it. Maybe he just hadn't noticed he'd done it. Or maybe it was a full moon—that always seemed to make people act weird. Realization flashed through her, her eyes flying wide and her jaw dropping slightly. Of course! The spell! _'From moon to moon,' _she quoted in her head. The spell hadn't worked right away because she hadn't cast it on the night of a full or new moon. She raised her eyes to the ceiling as she tried to remember…Yes, tonight was the _new_ moon, she recalled. The spell had officially started when the moon shifted into a new phase. She was startled into a smile by this thought. Well, as a rule, people didn't remember what had happened while they were under love spells, at least so far as her knowledge. That meant that he wouldn't remember a thing after all this was over. Well, good then. Her epiphany over, she focused on what was actually happening, and found that, while she'd been spacing out, they'd actually already gotten to a table. She sat down and scooted in.

Amber swirled the water in her glass, listening to the light clinking of the ice chips against the glass. She was still a little cautious of him…she was assuming that the spell had worked, but she wanted to be sure before she embarrassed herself, or something. So when she spoke, her voice was wary. "Dare I ask if this is a date?"

Chris' responding half smile was enigmatic. "That really depends. Do you want it to be?"

There was an interesting thought. She hated it when he turned questions back around on her. There was never a right answer. Feeling something like she was playing tennis, she turned the question back again with a flirtatiously drawn out, "Maybe..." Her eyes narrowed the tiniest bit in speculation, her lips turned up at one corner, "What about you? Didn't you say you didn't date?"

Chris leaned forward, his half-smile now more than a little smug, his half lidded green eyes assessing her reaction as he answered, "Maybe I changed my mind."

A hot rush of blood to her cheeks informed Amber that she was blushing. She glanced away and then back. She tugged distractedly on a lock of her hair, then pushed it out of the way. "Why?" Oh, bad question. Well, no taking it back now. "I mean, why did you change your mind?"

"Found something I couldn't resist." His eyes were still intent on her. She was fairly sure she if she could turn redder, she would have. As it was, her face felt hot enough to fry eggs. She took a calming sip of water, and tried to force her face back to normal. After a few minutes of silence, she felt like her face had returned to being a more or less normal shade. She promptly turned red again with his next casually delivered remark.

"You talk in your sleep, you know."

"I do not!" She felt her cheeks flame. "And how would you know anyway?"

"I heard you the other night."

The self-satisfied smile was driving her crazy. "You were in my room while I was sleeping?" She exclaimed. His answer was serious this time. "I orbed in to talk to you, but you were already sleeping."

"I…but…you…." She sputtered in dismay, "How did you—what did I say?" He smiled in response to her utter dismay. "Oh, nothing. Just my name."

Amber actually squeaked. "What?" Her face was definitely on fire now. "You're kidding." She didn't even need to wonder what night he must have been there on. She was mortified. "How long were you there? What did I…did I say anything else?"

The smug smile was back. "Just my name. Three times. I kind of want to know what you were dreaming."

Amber summoned the remainders of her dignity. "I'm not telling you."

"I can guess." That damn smile was really infuriating.

"Don't." She warned, unsuccessfully trying to keep her lips from twitching into a smile.

"How do you know I haven't already?" Damn him, he was teasing her. His smile said he was enjoying himself at her expense. "You sure you don't want to tell me?" He pressed, his tone persuasive, his green eyes working seduction. He _must_ be doing that on purpose, she groaned.

"No, I don't want to tell you." She insisted, glad to hear her voice was level. She was relieved when lunch arrived just then. She immediately filled her mouth with food so she wouldn't be required to say anything. She thought she might die of embarrassment. She focused on her food. Apparently she'd ordered a chicken pasta dish. As she ate, she pored over the conversation they'd just had. She could not _believe_ he had caught her talking about him in her sleep! Her cheeks heated again as she wondered if she'd done anything else…one thing was sure, she wasn't telling him what she'd dreamed about, guessing or no guessing. She wondered how much effort he'd put into guessing…and blushed again. Chris didn't miss this, if the lazy smile on his lips was any indication. She noticed that he wasn't eating. She glanced down at her food and back up, a little uncomfortable. She didn't want to be the only one eating, it felt awkward. "Why aren't you eating?" She asked.

"Because, unlike some people, I ate breakfast." He reminded her, causing her to blush. Again. Grr. She actually growled out loud in annoyance. "Are you having fun?"

"Actually, yeah." He admitted. The half smile was back. "You're cute when you're embarrassed."

Dammit! She furiously dug into the pasta with her fork.

"You're cuter when you're mad."

_Oh_, she didn't know whether to kill him or kiss him. She stuck a forkful of pasta in her mouth to keep from doing either. She fumed silently while she chewed the last bite. She put down the fork and pushed away from the table. "I'm done." She informed him. He stood up as well, completely at ease. She half expected him to take her hand again, but he didn't. He did walk closely to her on the way out.

She automatically reached for his hand as soon as they were out of public view, but he moved it out of the way to place it under her chin. It probably should have tipped her off when he licked his lips. But it was still unexpected when he kissed her lightly- and briefly- on the lips.

When he pulled away, licking his lips again, leaving her wide eyed, they were standing behind a life-sized cut-out of a movie poster. He peered over it, and walked out around it, apparently having a destination in mind. Amber swore to herself, then louder, "Son of a bitch!"

She hurried after him, catching up. She saw the amused half smile on his lips and swore again. "I hate you."

"I doubt that."

_The cocky son of a bitch_, she cursed mentally.

~~O~~

His arrogance—yeah, that was totally arrogance—caused her to steam angrily all the way into the theatre. What pissed her off even more is that she liked it. Hey, it was a quality she appreciated in a guy. Men who stood up to her impressed her. He was the only one who ever had. Which is why, despite the fact that she was steaming with anger, there was a little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth as she walked beside him. She quickened her step so she was ahead of him once they were in the darkened theatre and quickly snagged her favorite place to sit—the exact center of the theatre. When he sat next to her, she leaned over and whispered, "Don't think I didn't notice you cheated."

He looked a little confused. "What?"

"You cheated." She explained. "You orbed in past the guy so you wouldn't have to pay." She didn't bother hiding her amusement. His look suggested he had no idea what she was talking about. She didn't bother whispering, but kept her voice low when she asked, "Why are we here?"

"To watch a movie." He looked at her like 'duh'.

"Well, yeah." She was exasperated. "I know that. Why?"

"Because I felt like it." The enigmatic answer was accompanied by a shrug. Why did he do that? He always had to be so mysterious. Sheez. She tried another question. "What movie is it?"

"You'll see." Another enigmatic answer. God damn, but she wanted to hit him. Or something. The guy was truly frustrating. She sat back, arms crossed. Next to her, Chris stretched, and rested his arm along the back of her seat. She groaned aloud, dropping her head in her hand and shaking it a little in amusement. Was he serious? The stretch move? She amazed herself by not bursting into laughter. As it was, he heard her groan and asked a little defensively, "What?"

Her lips twitched. "You're from twenty years in the future and you used the oldest move in the book?"

"I like to stick with the timeless classics."

"More like Stone Age-worthy." She muttered. She thought she heard him chuckle quietly at that. After a moment of tenseness, she let herself relax against his arm. After all, if she didn't take advantage of the spell, then the entire effort was a waste of her time. But this odd uncomfortable feeling pricked away at her subconscious and she tried to push it to the side.

When the movie started, she grinned with relief. It was the movie she herself would have picked. She settled in comfortably to watch Shrek 2. She watched with rapt anticipation as the story unfolded. She squealed in delight whenever Puss in Boots was on the screen. She was a major sucker for the Antonio Banderas accent…who wasn't? Besides, all that ego packed into one tiny cat was adorable. She glanced over at Chris and saw that his eyes weren't on the screen. They were on her. Grateful for the darkness of the theater to hide her flushed cheeks, she whispered "Why aren't you watching the movie?"

"I've already seen it…. five-thousand times." He told her. She almost asked how, it had just come out in theaters and then her lips shaped an "oh" as she remembered. He'd probably grown up seeing this movie as a kid. She had forgotten that he was from the future, which was just too weird to think about. She returned her attention to the movie, trying to ignore the fact that she could still feel his eyes on her.

They emerged from the movie theatre when it was over, Chris listening as Amber began to enthusiastically inform him how great she thought the movie was, finishing with, "Puss in Boots was great—I love how they caught him with the catnip on him."

He responded with that typical half smile of his. "Glad you liked it."

Simple enough a response, but she gave a happy sort of smile anyway. It seemed the experience had loosened something up…she had quickly grabbed his hand, apparently having got the guts up to. He carefully didn't let his expression change…if he did, she might be uncomfortable again. And he really didn't want that. He used the handhold to steer her back behind the poster and, after checking0 that no one saw, orbed out again. He actually grinned—at least, in his mind—at the thought that Amber had probably wondered if he was going to do the same thing as last time. But he knew better. Never make the same move twice. Keep them guessing. He speculated as to whether she was disappointed or not. He thought she might be. He'd find out. Not yet, though.

Piper was still working on dinner when they got back. "It'll be ready in fifteen minutes. Chris, would you like to help?" Her eyebrow rose a little in question with the offer.

"Uh, sure, Mom." He agreed without complaint.

Feeling more or less out of the loop in the cooking range, Amber took herself upstairs to find something else to do while she waited. Her fingers drifted to her lips as she recalled what he'd done. Kissing her to orb her…well, it certainly counted as contact. She wasn't sure what to expect from him now. Was he going to do it again? She couldn't help but wonder. Probably. He was under a love spell. It was more of a question of when. She peered into Piper's room on a whim. Baby Chris was sleeping. She quietly crossed the floor to his cradle and looked down at the infant. She had to wonder about this whole love spell thing. She'd cast it, so it would last one month. She had one month of him. Would it be enough? One thing she had to think about, though she didn't really want to be looking at his baby self when she thought this…was how far to take it. How far _could_ she take this? She shivered. As far as she wanted, she suspected. She didn't think it would have consequences. Maybe it would. But it seemed the only consequences would be the effect this would have on her heart when she had to let go. She heard Piper calling her name, and stretched. "Night, baby Chris." She said softly, before leaving him to sleep.

Amber helped set the table. Tonight it was her, Chris, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige. Sometimes Leo joined in, or they had company, like Darryl and his wife—Amber couldn't remember her name. But not tonight. Phoebe and Paige chattered unselfconsciously about their experiences of the day…Phoebe had to deal with some nasty reporter at work, and was planning to bring some potion to work…Amber laughed when Phoebe told her it would turn him into a guinea pig. "I wish I could see that." She laughed, picturing it. "He won't remember, right?"  
"Nah," Phoebe waved a hand, eyes twinkling with laughter. "I'm an old pro at this."

Paige on the other hand had a far better day, having met a very cute guy at work. Chris rolled his eyes, waiting for the inevitable gushing. When Amber teased her about her good luck, his expression turned moody. Amber jumped a little, back tensing ramrod straight when his hand slid onto her thigh. She didn't look down, but she did slide a sideways glance at Chris, who wasn't paying attention. She looked back around at the others.

Phoebe gave her a perplexed look, but didn't say anything, much to Amber's relief. Amber relaxed a little. She didn't want anyone to ask any questions. That would be embarrassing. Besides, he wasn't moving his hand, or anything. She started biting her lip though, no longer listening to the chatter at the table. God, it hadn't occurred to her that the spell would even work. Now she was worrying as to whether anyone would notice. She chewed the inside of her cheek nervously. Well, he wasn't acting so out of the ordinary that they would look at her about it. She didn't think. She prayed that no one would notice.

"Amber, where were you today?" Piper questioned with gentle curiosity. She most likely couldn't fathom why Amber blushed at the innocent question. "Oh, we went to lunch and a movie."

"We?" Phoebe asked.

"Oh, Chris and I went." She raised her napkin to her face, trying to hide the pink blossoming on her skin.

A delighted smile and "Oh?" were Phoebe's response. Piper covered her interest with her typical practical calmness. "Did you?"

"Yeah. It was fun." Amber decided the napkin wasn't doing a whole lot of good, so she put it back on the table. "We saw Shrek 2."

"Really?" Phoebe's enthusiasm seeped through in her tone. "Tell—" She stopped when Paige pinched her under the table. "Ouch." She pulled her arm back, rubbing it.

"Was it good?" Paige asked, to cover the whole little incident.

"Yeah, it was funny. I liked it. Puss in Boots was so cute."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Yeah, she really liked him."

Piper's level of calm could only cover so much and she shot him a surprised look, but again kept all questions to herself. She had a distinct feeling something was going on, and she didn't want to call attention to it yet. Chris took his hand from her leg and she found herself being disappointed. But it was only to scoop more food onto his plate, which he did at a leisurely pace, and then returned his hand to her thigh, sending her nerves fluttering again. She licked her lips, shifting slightly in her seat. His lips rose into a smirk for a second then relaxed back to a normal expression. Now Phoebe's eyes narrowed on him, but he didn't change expressions again. "Chris, are you feeling alright?" She asked.

"Never better." His response was lackadaisical. His thumb moved lightly against Amber's thigh, and Amber said, "I, uh. Uh." She blinked. What was it she wanted to say? She swore then spit out impatiently, "I'm going to my room, okay?" She practically leapt from her chair and bolted for the stairs.

Every single one of them watched as she escaped the room like a bat out of hell. Then all eyes turned to stare unblinkingly at Chris.

"Is there something we should know about?" Piper inquired passively.

Chris' expression remained impassive. "I have no idea." He stood up, pushing his chair back.

"I'm going to go check on her."

They waited until they were sure he was out of earshot.

"Okay, was that not weird?" Phoebe immediately demanded. "Is it just me?"

"No, it's definitely not just you." Piper told her, at the same moment Paige said, "It's you."  
"No…it's not me." Phoebe frowned. "What do you think is going on?"

"I don't know. But, you know, it is their business…" Piper trailed off, looking towards the door Chris had exited through.

"Didn't you notice when he looked at Amber?"

"No." Paige said.

"He looked like the cat eyeballing the canary." Phoebe informed her, also looking towards the door.

"Well, maybe he likes her." Paige shrugged, and stood up, picking up her dishes, and went into the kitchen.

"No, see, if he liked her, he would have told me." Phoebe said.

"Why?" Piper wanted to know. "He's not really open about things like that."

"But—" Phoebe protested, then sighed. "You've got a point. I hope Paige is right."

Chris leaned one arm against the wall and knocked with his other hand. He heard a clattering sound, then the doorknob turning. The door swung open and Amber was standing there. Her eyes flared open a little wider when she saw him. Obviously, she'd been expecting someone else to be there. He didn't usually bother with knocking when orbing was so much easier. Why bother knocking if you were going to go in anyway?

"What are you doing here?" she asked, tucking a stray strand of dark red hair behind her ear.

"Do I need to have a reason?" He asked, looking down at her with an expression that suggested that he was already enjoying this. He eased his way into her room, which was made easier when she kind of scrambled back to give him room to move.

"What, nervous?" He had that half-smile back in place.

"No." She lied. He was inspecting the stuff on her dresser, with casual interest. Like he was just looking at them cause they were there. The sleek black cat curled up amidst the folds of a blanket looked up with curious eyes at Chris. "Hey, Jazz." Chris gave the cat a scratch behind the ears. He looked back at Amber. "That is his name right?"

"Yeah. It's short for Jasper, remember?" Amber responded, shifting a little uncomfortably. He didn't usually hang around her room for no apparent reason. The only times he ever came into her room were to talk to her…and it didn't seem like he wanted to talk. When he was finished giving Jazz his due attention, he turned his attention back to Amber.

"Why'd you knock?" Amber blurted. "You usually orb in."

"Felt like a change of pace." He answered, watching her face. Somehow, she couldn't stop her torrent of confusion from pouring out just then. "Why did you do that—why did you do what you did at dinner? Why did you k-kiss me when you orbed? What are you doing he…" She broke off, noticing that his green eyes were half-lidded again and… her gaze was drawn to his mouth. He moistened his lips in an action she was beginning to find familiar. She was completely frozen, like a cute little bunny being eyeballed by a hungry wolf. She had the feeling she knew what he was here for. She didn't move, not even when his hand curved around her shoulder, and leaned down. She even cooperated by tilting her head back, albeit unconsciously. It was the heat of his mouth that did her in. She ran one hand down his back, the other on his shoulder and deepened it, automatically slipping her tongue in his mouth. He slid his hands under her shirt and ran one up her back, while returning the favor. This emboldened Amber, and she slid one hand just under his tee shirt, running her fingers over his bare skin…and then she heard a squeak. She jerked away, and stared in the direction it had come from to see Phoebe in the doorway, gaping at them. "I am…oh, my God, I am so sorry." Phoebe blurted. "I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to go now." She said pointing in the opposite direction. "Really, I'm going to go, just, go back to what you were doing and pretend this never happened, okay? Okay." She dashed off in an apparent hurry.

"Okay…I should get going." Chris was looking mildly uncomfortable.

"No, that's really—" She broke off when he orbed out. "Damn."

She stared blankly for a minute, then stormed out to the top of the stairs, and hollered, "Phoebe, I swear to God, if that ever happens again, I am going to blow you up!"

"Sooorrrryyy!" Was the hollered response.

Well, damn.

_**A/N**_

_**The song Chris was singing to himself in the beginning of this chapter was originally "I'm Still Here" by the Goo Goo Dolls but I changed it to "Away" by Breaking Benjamin because that song always makes me think of the relationship between Chris and Amber. And no, I couldn't resist bringing Caden into it. He was supposed to be a throwaway character, but I fell in love with his character and decided to bring him back.**_

_**Also, I'm thinking about what to do with the next chapter. What I have written is pretty cheesy, but I still think it's really cute and funny. Are you guys cool with a cheesy fairytale moment, or is that too much?**_


	13. Chapter 13

**I (again) am unbelievably sorry that I did have not uploaded in the last, what is it, almost a month? I wanted to change some things in this chapter, but I realized that I am not going to have the time to do so and still actually give you the chapter. So here it is, hopefully it truly is better late than never **

**Ch. 14**

He orbed to his usual spot to think, swearing the whole way. If Phoebe hadn't walked in... he swore again. Damn, he was going to—well, if he'd have shut the door that might not have happened. Wait, it was Phoebe, what was he thinking? He'd have to lock and bolt the door to keep her out. Whatever. Next time, he'd… hold up, next time? Was he really considering a next time? He thought about it… and came up with definitely. Hell, he was _planning_ on it. He had to wonder now what had stopped him before. He'd known Amber for months, but he'd never tried anything. Oh, right. He'd had a few reasons. There was the big reason—the reason he'd come here was for Wyatt. But he'd taken care of some demons that were after him, and he hadn't done anything but work on finding more demons since he'd gotten here. And everyone was always bugging him to get a life outside of demons anyway. He could still keep an eye on Wyatt and have a life. He wanted her, he _knew_ she wanted him. It was obvious. This was a good thing. It would make all of this a hell of a lot easier.

Amber sighed, glaring down the stairs. She should go talk to Phoebe. If they all found out…she hadn't expected her paltry attempt at a spell to work so she hadn't anticipated what she would do if the sisters found out about her mischief. She reluctantly went downstairs and found Phoebe on the couch in the living room. She plopped down on the couch beside her. "Phoebe…"

Phoebe looked like she felt terrible. "I am so sorry, Amber. I really had no idea. I was just worried about you."

"It's okay. Just…" Amber was biting her lip.

Phoebe gave her a suspicious look. "Why are you nervous?" She peered closer at Amber, "You're hiding something from me."

Amber wrestled with her conscience for several moments. She finally said slowly, "You have to promise not to tell anyone."

Phoebe wrinkled her face up. "I can try. I'm really, really lousy at keeping secrets."

"Can you _try_? This is really important." Amber begged.

"Okay. I promise." Phoebe gave in. She really had to know now.

"I cast a love spell on Chris." Amber blurted.

"You what?" Phoebe didn't know whether to laugh or scold her. "On Chris? Sweetie, you know that's dangerous right? Love spells always backfire."

"It doesn't seem to have so far." Amber wore a worried expression. "Look, it's only temporary, okay? It's supposed to wear off in like 3 or 4 weeks."

Phoebe looked worried as well. "Almost a month?"

She caved at the sight of Amber's puppy eyes. "I guess we can give it a try. If something goes wrong, you'll have to fix it. I can't help you on this one."

"I know." Amber sucked in her breath. "I can deal with whatever happens. I promise."

It was the next day when Phoebe was in the kitchen, slicing a banana into a cereal bowl that Chris orbed in to talk to her. "Phoebe." He greeted her, snagging an apple from the fruit bowl on the table and biting into it. "Hey, do you have any ideas for where I could take Amber today?" He queried, utterly without shame. Phoebe smiled, but continued slicing. "Why don't you try asking her where she _wants_ to go?"

He waved a finger at her. "Good idea." And he wandered off, apple still in hand.

Amber trotted downstairs, only to bump immediately into Chris. She automatically started to back up and apologize, but he gripped her shoulder to keep her still, and unexpectedly asked "Hey, are you busy today?"

"No…" She answered, looking at him curiously. "Why?"

Typical enigmatic half smile. "I was wondering if you wanted to do something."

She blushed as she recalled what exactly went on last time she'd seen him. "Like what?"

He shrugged, still with the enigmatic smile on his lips. "Whatever you want."

Whatever she wanted? There was an idea. She tried to think of the appropriate response, all the while wishing she could smack her head against the wall a few dozen times without him giving her funny looks. "Um. I don't know. I really don't know." She thought about it. Then she willed her mind out of the gutter. "Well…I haven't been to P3 in awhile," She ventured. His smile was amused now. "Think bigger than San Francisco. We can go anywhere you want."

That significantly expanded her possibilities. . She still didn't know what to pick though. She gave a slight smile. "Surprise me."

There was a moment of silence while he apparently considered options. The wicked smile making its way across his lips was starting to really worry her.

"What?" She blurted.

"Are you a virgin?"

No wonder he was smirking. Her cheeks flamed as she tried to stammer out a response. Luckily she was saved by Paige, who was standing a few feet away, having just walked in. Just in time to hear him say that…God, this was embarrassing. Paige's expression was utterly disgusted. "Christopher Halliwell, did you really just ask that? That is so rude, you never ask a woman about her love life."

He shrugged at her in response, still smirking. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Right..." Paige quirked an eyebrow expectantly, folded her arms, and inquired "So how did you mean it?"

"I just meant…" He sighed. "Ask Phoebe."

"Fine. I will." Paige flounced to the kitchen, presumably to do just that. Chris returned his attention to Amber, who was still scarlet. "You ready?"

Amber recovered enough to say, "Depends. Where are we going?"

The rare grin, accompanied with, "You'll see. Don't worry."

Why was she more worried than ever? Just the same, she took his hand and squeezed her eyes closed when he orbed.

"Ask Phoebe, ask Phoebe!" Phoebe threw her hands up into the air in a melodramatic show of exasperation. "Tell me, is there anyone on this planet who doesn't _Ask Phoebe_?"

Paige rolled her eyes at her older sister's display. "You know, Phoebes, you really should take a vacation one of these days."

Phoebe looked at her for a moment, then deflated, dropping her hands to her sides.

"I know. I just don't have the time."

"Make time." Refusing to be deterred, she gave Phoebe a gimlet stare. "So, what's the deal with Chris?"

Phoebe's eyes went wide and she hurriedly replied without daring to look at Paige, "What do you mean? He seems perfectly fine to me."

"Are you kidding?" Paige's eyebrow went way up. "He's acting bizarre, and he told me you'd tell me what was going on. _Why exactly did he ask Amber if she was a virgin?"_

"I have no idea." Phoebe was still looking away.

"I don't think so, sister. He told me to ask you, so you obviously know something that I don't."

Phoebe compressed her lips to keep from blurting out the secret. She looked like she was ready to explode. Paige already had her trademark I-know-you're-gonna-spill-so-do-it-already smirk in place. "Come on, Phoebe. Spill."

"Spell!" Phoebe blurted out. "Amber put Chris under a love spell." At first she looked horrified at her own failure, then relieved to have gotten it off her chest. "See? No big deal."

"Ooh, a love spell?" Paige's eyebrows rose suggestively.

"Yeah." Phoebe was all one big sigh of relief right then. "But I promised her I wouldn't tell anyone, so you've got to keep your mouth shut."

"Oh, right. Cause Piper's old."

"Excuse me? I'm what?" Piper interjected, dropping her keys on the counter. Phoebe jumped guiltily and Paige covered by saying, "Well, no offense Piper, but married equals old in my book." She shrugged.

"Hey, I am not old." Piper said defensively. "I am still fun. I still get the whole unmarried and irresponsible thing."

"Hey, I'm not irresponsible." Paige argued.

This argument could last forever, Phoebe thought, wondering if she should stop them or not.

Amber promptly slipped and fell on her ass when she found herself on solid ground again. She glared at Chris when he laughed at her and, refusing his hand, stubbornly got up by herself. "So, where are we?" She asked.

"Nice try." He still wasn't gonna tell her? He had to be kidding. She dusted off the back of her pants. "Okay, so what do we do, then?"

"Wait." With that, he took a seat on the ground. Amber made a face. Well, hell. She might as well have stayed on the ground then. She plopped back down next to him somewhat gracelessly, hoping her jeans wouldn't end up damp. "What are we waiting for?"

His gaze flicked back to her face. "I told you. You'll see." He continued. "I'm pretty sure one will show up…" He scanned the trees around them. Amber followed his gaze, hoping to get a clue of what exactly he was looking for. "They're curious…they'll come sniffing around."

"So…. what are we waiting for?" She asked again. She reasoned that it had to be a creature of some sort. If it was gonna be "sniffing" around.

This time, he just looked at her.

"Well….?"

No response. A frustrated huff.

"You are extremely unhelpful."

"I know." He finally said. She huffed at him again before trying a different tactic. "Please?"

He rolled his eyes. "No."

"Please?"

"No."

A pout. "Pleeeaaaassseee?"

Exasperated. "No."

"Why not? She was equally exasperated. He didn't answer, but a smirk was playing about his lips and upon closer scrutiny she realized he wasn't looking at her. He was looking just slightly to the left of her face. Why? What was he—"GACK!" She felt something snuffle at her shoulder and jerked away, and looked with wide eyes at the horse—wait, that wasn't a horse, there was a spear-like horn growing out of its—"Holy shit!" she blurted. "Is that actually a unicorn?"

The raised eyebrow suggested that she was, as she'd long believed, crazy. "Yeah. Unless you know about any other white horses with horns growing out of their heads."

She gave him a dirty look and then returned her gaze to the unicorn. "That is so cool! I thought you guys were myths! Can I pet him?"

"Sure. They're good."

"So that's why you asked me that weird question earlier." She marveled. "Wait, does being a virgin have anything to do with whether they like you or not?"

A lazy smile. "Myth. If any girl sat still long enough, they'd be surrounded by them."

"Surrounded?" But even as she looked, she noticed another unicorn cautiously poking its head out from the trees. She concentrated on stroking the soft creamy fur of the one next to her. He—or was it a she? She didn't know anything about unicorn anatomy—flopped down into the grass with what was almost a groan. It rested its head on her knee. "Um. They don't drool, right?"

He laughed at that. "Maybe. It's not like I spend my spare time here."

"Good thing. Otherwise I'd worry about your sexuality." She looked at him in an exaggerated display of wide-eyed alarm. Instead of the offense she'd expected him to take and the protests she'd expected him to make, his lips slipped into a smug sort of smile as he responded, "Actually, unicorns are symbolic of masculinity and were believed to have powers to make men more virile."

Amber hesitated, decided she had to know, and then blurted, "Is that a myth?"

A glance at the unicorn next to him, and, "I don't know. You want to find out?"

Amber tried, and failed, to fight the furious blush rising to her cheeks. "Uh. Um. I." She rubbed her hand through her hair nervously. "Actually. Yeah."

A flicker of surprise in his eyes, and his eyebrow rose, before he smirked, pushed her hair out of the way, tugged the sleeve of her shirt down her arm, and laid his lips to the bared skin. She uttered a surprised gasp as his lips moved from her shoulder down her collarbone. The gasp turned into a giggle when she saw a unicorn sniff his hair and then start munching on it. She couldn't see his face, but she could feel the sudden jolt of surprise that went through him.

"It's eating my hair, isn't it?" He gave a resigned sigh as he straightened. Amber nodded and another giggle slipped out. He pushed the unicorn's head away, shooting it an annoyed look. He ran a hand through his hair, the back of it wet and sticking up from the unicorn's antics. "I need a shower." He sounded so put out that Amber had to hide her mirth when she suggested, "Why don't we go back so you can shower?"

"You sure? I can go and come back for you in ten min—"

Amber interrupted him, "No… I'm good. There's only so much I can do for entertainment here anyway." She put her hand on his shoulder to ready herself for that disorienting moment of molecular dispersion, but this time she kept her eyes open.

She promptly regretted this when her butt hit the floor—again—and she was dizzy for several moments. "That is the worst mode of transportation in the world!" She spat as she gripped the side of the wall to stand up.

"You'll get used to it." Piper's lips twitched up into a smile at Amber's balance problem.

"I doubt it." Amber was mildly frustrated and embarrassed at the same time. When her senses had fully returned to her, she put a hand on her hip and mock glared at Piper. "Where'd you come from, anyway?"

"I was just standing here, where'd you come from?" Piper retorted. Amber looked around. They were in the kitchen and Piper was cooking dinner. "Oh. Sorry."

Piper glanced at Chris. "What happened to your….never mind. I don't want to know."

Paige walked in. "I'm gonna—whoa, Chris, what happened to your hair?" She inspected the back of his head.

Chris didn't deign to respond. "I need a shower."

Piper, Paige, and Amber all watched him go. "What's wrong with him?" Paige asked, sounding almost insulted. Piper shook her head slightly and reached for the wooden spoon. "I stopped asking myself that a long time ago…"

Amber and Paige both laughed.

"Now, what were you saying, Paige?" Piper asked, stirring whatever was in the pot on the stove.

"Oh. I can't remember now. What's for dinner?" Paige peered into the pot on the stove, before getting shooed away from the stove by Piper. "Nothing if you don't stop distracting me. Go… do something. Elsewhere. As in, not here."

Paige crinkled her nose at her sister in mock-annoyance. Before exiting the room, though, Paige sniffed the air and said, "Do I smell…is that unicorn?"

Amber twitched. They could _smell_ her? Out loud she said, "I need to go change."

As she was leaving the kitchen, she could hear Piper asking Paige, "How do you know what unicorns smell like?"

"Remember when…"

She heard the spray of the shower as she passed by the bathroom, and reminded herself to take one before bed. In the meantime…she closed the door behind her automatically when she entered her room. Her mind wandered to that afternoon. She passed by her dresser and spotted her reflection in the mirror above it. She reached for her makeup bag and spilled the contents over the dresser. She selected her favorite shade of red and started filling in her lips with the rich color.

Finished showering and toweling off, Chris eyed the still-fogged mirror. He wiped a circle in it—not something his mother would thank him for later—and checked out his hair. It was still a complete mess. He combed his fingers through it to try and make it look presentable and then grimaced at his reflection. He could almost hear the crack not-evil Wyatt would have made about his primping.

Amber capped the eyeliner. Not bad, she mused. She almost regretted it now, seeing as she really had nothing to do that involved makeup being necessary, and it would be a pain in the ass to remove later. Oh well. She rolled her smoky, lined blue eyes at herself, and smiled. She couldn't even try to pretend that she wasn't hoping that Chris was going to surprise her again. She changed out of her unicorn-ish smelling clothes into another pair of jeans and a one-shoulder white ruffled blouse. Barefoot, she walked out of the room, thinking she'd go see if Piper was allowing people in the kitchen yet. On her way towards the stairs, she literally bumped into Chris. He'd changed too, she guessed that he'd orbed back to his room to get a change of clothes as well, and put a button up shirt on over his tee shirt. She grinned at his hair. It was normal again. "Nice hair." She teased.

He shot her an annoyed look. "I'm never gonna live that down, am I?"

"Probably not." She agreed.

He sighed and shook his head slightly, but continued down the stairs, and she trotted down behind him.

Paige saw them first, and a sly smile perked up the corners of her lips. "Hey, you guys look good…where are you going?"

"Nowhere." They both said at the same time.

"Oh, come on. Seriously, do you guys never have fun? Jeez, Chris, take a break, you guys…go out to dinner or something." Paige sounded almost annoyed. "Here." She jotted down something on a piece of paper and handed it to Chris.

"And who's going to be bankrolling this?" He gave a doubtful look to his aunt. She rolled her eyes. "Oh, right. Whitelighter."

"Hey, if I hadn't come back here to—"

Paige waved off the beginnings of one of his rants. "Just go. I've got ya covered, okay? Just don't say I never did anything for you."

Chris looked down at the paper and looked back at Amber. "What do you think?"

"I think I'll go get my shoes." Before she walked out, she turned to look back at him, "Oh. And can we take my car instead orbing?"

He chuckled. "Sure."

Paige watched them leave, then reached for her cell phone, dialed the number, and waited. "Hello? Is Damian there? Yeah. Hey…" Her voice shifted to her most seductive tone. "Remember that favor you owe me?"

**A/N**

**Initially I wrote this because I thought it had been long overdue that they have some supremely adorable fluff moments, so I went totally overboard. That said, I also couldn't help that think that what Chris did in this chapter was pretty typical guy stuff – trying to impress a girl with something fluffy and ridiculously cute. Things should be winding down within a couple of weeks, hopefully. We're filming the first episode of the web-series on Saturday so I should have more time to write when we're finished with that. And thank you so much for those of you that are still reading this, for bearing with me.**


End file.
